However, there is another factor at play, which is that people who are more image conscious drive nicer cars at the same level of income/wealth, and in my experience, people who are more image conscious also tend to act more like jerks.

Thanks for sharing data. I suspect this effect is heavily stratified across demographics.

After a point, how much someone chooses to spend on their car is about their values more than their wealth.

I once lived in a street with many parked cars worth almost as much the houses of their owners. They were clearly bought (well, financed) as status symbols. I now live in a more affluent, desirable area where the cars are much more modest despite higher wealth and social status of their owners (doctors, scientists etc).

That's income, not wealth though. Some wealthy people don't have very high incomes.

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Why would an rando anecdote (which another sibling comment has proven does not reflect the broader reality) call into question an actual study? The latter may be garbage, or not, but it starts with a much better claim to credibility.

>criminals can’t deposit their money into a bank

They can. It just gets reported to FinCEN, which might attract unwanted attention. The same applies to buying a $200k lambo with cash, which has to be reported to the IRS[1], on top of being registered with the state DMV.

[1] https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employe...

I worked with a client that sold stuff that was legal, but directed a lot of ad traffic to very questionable stuff and made a crazy amount of money from it.

Because of this there was always some risk of the government locking up bank accounts, so physical assets were purchased and spread around to avoid seizure of all finances which can prevent a person from fighting a legal battle.

The opposite of modesty is not "buying a Ferrari". Anyone at any level of wealth can be immodest.

Not saying I agree with GP, but your point doesn't hold up.

There’s still a strong cultural bias though that is likely location dependent. I have lived in very wealthy towns for which there was not a single Ferrari or Bentley around (or any other luxury car for that matter). That ownership of an expensive car requires some degree of wealth is absolutely clear, but the inverse doesn’t follow —- average cars don’t indicate average income. It could be that the study finds that certain ethical biases are related to people who buy expensive cars, which is not the same as saying that certain ethical biases are related to wealthy people. Millionaires who drive Toyotas could simply exhibit different ethical standards than millionaires who drive Ferraris.

A frank conversation with a luxury car dealer might surrise you. People are buying these things on credit mostly, and are definitely not rich.

5-10 year old used Bentleys are ~50-60K well within the realm of a normal middle class individual.

> Poor people aren't buying Ferraris and Bentleys

No, but sometimes they can finance a very (comparatively) expensive car for way too many years at an insane percentage just to appear wealthier than they are. And that stomps on the study just as much as millionaires driving a Camry IMO.