People raking in boatloads of money get a bad rap for being selfish, but a new study shows that those with a desire to make lots of dough do not automatically make them Ebenezer Scrooge, Popular Science reported.

A study conducted by Michael Babula, a lecturer at the University of Greenwich, published in the April issue of the Journal of Applied Social Psychology found that many people primarily driven by a desire for wealth are still willing to help someone in need.

An experiment with wealth-driven college students in an intro economics course at Loyola University, mostly business majors, found that 78 percent displayed a willingness to stop and lend assistance to someone in trouble.

Although previous research has shown that people with a desire for wealth are more likely to help others if they are not in a hurry, and might be less likely to help others if they love money, this study found that students would lend a hand regardless of the circumstance.

First, the students filled out a questionnaire measuring their religiosity and desire for wealth.

Then, they were given one of two passages to read--either one about career paths for economics students or a version of the parable of the Good Samaritan. They were asked to go down the hall to another room where they would give a short speech related to the passage they had read. Some were told they were running late and the researcher in the other room would be waiting on them, while others were told they didn't need to rush.

While on their way to the other room, the participants encountered someone in distress who would approach the subject explaining that his phone had just died and one of his relatives had been in a bad accident. The distressed person would rank each student's helpfulness on a scale from 0 to 5 - from not noticing to offering help, according to Popular Science.

The majority of the participants offered some form of aid to the victim, either directly, by giving the distressed person their own cell phone or money for a payphone, or indirectly, by alerting someone else to help the victim. Only 22 percent did not help at all, and 66 percent stayed with the victim and/or gave them a cell phone to use.

Despite being helpful, the researchers later found that these individuals were selfish.

After the students went into the room and gave the speech, they answered a questionnaire about how likely they would be to help someone in need, whether they would participate in insider trading if they could get away with it and receive $2 million, and whether accumulating material wealth was one of their major goals in life.

Researchers found that "the majority of the participants were somewhat ethically challenged."

Fifty-six percent of participants admitted they would take the $2 million for insider trading, and 72 percent said accumulating wealth was a top life priority.

Whether or not they were in a hurry didn't seem to significantly affect the students' altruism: 84 percent of the low-hurry group stopped to help, whereas 72 percent stopped in the high-hurry group. Which passage the students had been given to read didn't affect the outcome either.

According to Popular Science, whether the subject was intrinsically motivated by religion did predict helping behavior: those with intrinsic religious were 13 times more likely to help compared to a subject without intrinsic motivation or were motivated by social status or peer approval.

"The source of intrinsic motivation arises from following religious tradition, which calls for altruism and self-sacrifice," Babula wrote. "The significant finding offers an upbeat note that wealth-driven individuals in this sample may possess the Samaritan-like mindset."