[toshk]

It seems to me that we the strongest bonds are formed out of necessity.

We bond with people in difficult situations when we need protections and are able to protect.

I've noticed friends who are born in places like South Africa, or Russia are much intenser with friendships.

My theory is that they really have to trust eachother because they have no trust in the system.

Where I grew up, trust in system is strong and it seems people don't need to rely on eachother.

It's not so simple, and of course most people still bond deeply depending on personality and upbringing. But it's why I think most Western societies are so individual.

[mockingbirdy]

There are some studies which reveal possible connections between wealth, compassion and how generous people are. [1] and [2] for articles about studies like [3]. I see some shortcomings in some of the studies (looking at drivers of luxury cars is not informative about all types of wealthy people, just the ones who care about spending it this way which self-selects a certain kind of person), but I think that the general direction could be informative for more research. There are also studies about cognitive costs of empathy [4] which may relate to this.

[1]: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/wealth/save/why-poor-pe...

[2]: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-wealth-reduce...

[3]: https://www.pnas.org/content/109/11/4086.short

[4]: https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xge-xge0000595.pd...