Kanye West and Jamie Foxx wrote the definitive gold digger anthem back in 2005, and for the last two decades, the cultural assumption has largely held: women chase rich men, men get played, everybody loses. A new study out of Vienna would like to challenge that narrative.
Researchers at the Behavioral and Social Sciences Institute, led by psychologist Lennart Freyth, published findings this year confirming what many people have probably suspected.
“Gold digging, often stereotyped as female behavior, is in fact not limited to women,” the study authors wrote. The team even cited West and Foxx’s track directly in their analysis, pulling the lyric “she takes my money when I’m in need” to outline what they describe as the three core public assumptions about gold diggers: that they exploit money, avoid broke partners, and are always women. Two out of three, it turns out, have held up. The third one didn’t.
The researchers polled 351 participants, all around age 30 and representing a range of sexual orientations and political leanings. The self-assessment examined personality traits—narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, sadism—alongside demographic and societal factors. Participants answered questions like whether they’d prefer a wealthy but emotionally unreliable partner over a faithful but financially unstable one. The answers were illuminating and pretty unflattering across the board.
Gold Digging Isn’t Limited to Women, but It Does Attract a Lot of Narcissists
Non-heterosexual, left-leaning men scored the highest on gold-digging across all groups. Among women, mid-left non-heterosexual respondents scored higher than their heterosexual counterparts. “Overall, non-heterosexuals and political leftists scored higher than heterosexuals, political centrists, and right-wingers,” the researchers noted. Gold digging also correlated with narcissism, psychopathy, high self-assessed mate value, and a preference for dense urban areas. Students were disproportionately represented. Make of that what you will.
One finding that applied equally across sexes: gold diggers of all genders tend to be charming, reckless narcissists who weaponize their appearance to reel in wealthier partners. The wrinkle for women specifically is that sadism showed up as a uniquely female-linked trait in this particular pool. Yikes.
Freyth reserved a specific warning for women sizing up seemingly sensitive men. “These men increase their mating value by positioning themselves as compassionate, caring, and empathetic,” he said. “This way, women consider them less of a red flag.”
And then he left everyone with this: “Keep in mind that even a guy who appears thoughtful and compassionate might have interests beyond your character.”
Noted.
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