A neural perspective on when and why trait greed comes at the expense of others

Depending on the point of view, conceptions of greed range from being a desirable and inevitable feature of a well-regulated, well-balanced economy to the root of all evil - radix omnium malorum avaritia (Tim 6.10). Regarding the latter, it has been proposed that greedy individuals strive for obtaining desired goods at all costs. Here, we show that trait greed predicts selfish economic decisions that come at the expense of others in a resource dilemma. This effect was amplified when individuals strived for obtaining real money, as compared to points, and when their revenue was at the expense of another person, as compared to a computer. On the neural level, we show that individuals high, compared to low in trait greed showed a characteristic signature in the EEG, a reduced P3 effect to positive, compared to negative feedback, indicating that they may have a lack of sensitivity to adjust behavior according to positive and negative stimuli from the environment. Brain-behavior relations further confirmed this lack of sensitivity to behavior adjustment as a potential underlying neuro-cognitive mechanism which explains selfish and reckless behavior that may come at the expense of others

I can't wait! Neural reward signals in impulsive individuals exaggerate the difference between immediate and future rewards

Waiting for rewards is difficult, and highly impulsive individuals with low self-control have an especially hard time with it. Here, we investigated whether neural responses to rewards in a delayed gratification task predict impulsivity and self-control. The EEG was recorded from participants engaged in a guessing game in which on each trial they could win either a large or small reward, paid either now or after 6 months. Ratings confirmed that participants preferred immediate, large rewards over small, delayed rewards. Electrophysiological reward signals reflecting the difference between immediate and future rewards predicted self-report measures of impulsivity and self-control. Further, these signals were highly reliable across two sessions over a 1-week interval, showing high temporal stability like stable personality traits. These results suggest that greater valuation of immediate rewards causes impulsive individuals to redirect control away from delayed rewards, indicating why it is so hard for them to wait

Decision-making in blackjack : an electrophysiological analysis

Previous studies have identified a negative potential in the event-related potential (ERP), the error-related negativity (ERN), which is claimed to be triggered by a deviation from a reward expectation. Furthermore, this negativity is related to shifts in risk taking, strategic behavioral adjustments, and inhibition. We used a computer Blackjack gambling task to further examine the process associated with the ERN. Our findings are in line with the view that the ERN process is related to the degree of reward expectation. Furthermore, increased ERN amplitude is associated with the negative evaluation of ongoing decisions, and the amplitude of the ERN is directly related to risk-taking and decision-making behavior. However, the findings suggest that an explanation exclusively based on the deviation from a reward expectation may be insufficient and that the intention of the participants and the importance of a negative event for learning and behavioral change are crucial to the understanding of ERN phenomena

Personalization & Trust-Enhancing Signals in E-Commerce

Despite worldwide growing revenue rates in e-Commerce, a lot of economic potential remains unused, which is manifesting in low conversion rates. Only a fraction of website visitors can be transformed to website buyers, which may be explained by a lack of trust in the retailer. In e-Commerce, trustworthiness can be signaled through special stimuli presented on the website as interaction platform between customer and retailer. By personalization of these signals, consumers can conveniently collect information needed to reduce their individual risk concerns. The objective of this study is to understand whether and how the personalization of trust-enhancing signals has an effect on trusting attitudes, buying intentions and buying behaviors. First promising preliminary results refer to the central importance of trust-enhancing signals for both a trustworthy impression and trust-related buying behavior. These insights will hold practical and managerial implications for web designers, online retailers and the integration of personalization into the business model

What you give is what you get : payment of one randomly selected trial induces risk-aversion and decreases brain responses to monetary feedback

In economic studies, it is standard practice to pay out the reward of only one randomly selected trial (pay-one) instead of the total reward accumulated across trials (pay-all), assuming that both methods are equivalent. We tested this assumption by recording electrophysiological activity to reward feedback from participants engaged in a decision-making task under both a pay-one and a pay-all condition. We show that participants are approximately 12% more risk averse in the pay-one condition than in the pay-all condition. Furthermore, we observed that the electrophysiological response to monetary rewards, the reward positivity, is significantly reduced in the pay-one condition relative to the pay-all condition. The difference of brain responses is associated with the difference in risky behavior across conditions. We concluded that the two payment methods lead to significantly different results and are therefore not equivalent

Social influence and external feedback control in humans [version 3; peer review: 2 approved]

This article aims to unravel the dynamics of social influence by examining the processes that occur when one person is the target of another’s influence. We hypothesized that these processes are part of a feedback loop system in an individual. This loop involves the situation (input), a goal state (reference), a comparator, a selection mechanism, a feedback predictor, and an action (output). Each element can become the target of social influence, and different types of social influence can be classified and explained by how these elements are targeted. For instance, attempting to persuade another person with strong arguments targets the goal state of the affected individual, while obedience targets the selection mechanism, and violence targets the action. In summary, this article aims to categorize, order, and explain phenomena in social influence research using a feedback loop framework focusing on the influenced individual

Domain-specific greed

Greed, the insatiable and excessive desire and striving for more even at the expense of others, may be directed toward various goods. In this article, we propose that greed may be conceptualized as a domain-specific construct. Based on a literature review and an expert survey, we identified 10 domains of greed which we operationalized with the DOmain-SPEcific Greed (DOSPEG) questionnaire. In Study 1 (N = 725), we found support for the proposed structure and convergent validity with related constructs. Bifactor-(S-1) models revealed that generic greed is differentially related to the greed domains, indicating that generic greed primarily captures a striving for money and material things. In the second study (N = 591), we found that greed domains had incremental validity beyond generic greed with regard to corresponding criteria assessed via self- and other-reports. We conclude that greed can be conceptualized as a domain-specific construct and propose an onion model reflecting this structure

The value of a smile: Facial expression affects ultimatum-game responses

In social interaction, the facial expression of an opponent contains information that may influence the interaction. We asked whether facial expression affects decision-making in the ultimatum game. In this two-person game, the proposer divides a sum of money into two parts, one for each player, and then the responder decides whether to accept the offer or reject it. Rejection means that neither player gets any money. Results of a large-sample study support our hypothesis that offers from proposers with a smiling facial expression are more often accepted, compared to a neutral facial expression. Moreover, we found lower acceptance rates for offers from proposers with an angry facial expression

The development of trait greed during young adulthood: A simultaneous investigation of environmental effects and negative core beliefs

This publication is with permission of the rights owner (Sage) freely accessible.Recent models of personality development have emphasized the role of the environment in terms of selection and socialization effects and their interaction. Our study provides partial evidence for these models and, crucially, extends these models by adding a person variable: Core beliefs, which are defined as mental representations of experiences that individuals have while pursuing need-fulfilling goals. Specifically, we report results from a longitudinal investigation of the development of trait greed across time. Based on data from the German Personality Panel, we analyzed data on 1,965 young adults on up to 4 occasions, spanning a period of more than 3 years. According to our results, negative core beliefs that have so far been proposed only in the clinical literature (e.g., being unloved or being insecure) contributed to the development of trait greed, indicating that striving for material goals might be a substitute for unmet needs in the past. Additionally, greedy individuals more often self-selected themselves into business-related environments, which presumably allow them to fulfill their greed-related need to earn a lot of money. Our results expose important mechanisms for trait greed development. Regarding personality development in general, core beliefs were identified as an important variable for future theory building.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschafthttps://doi.org/10.13039/501100001659Peer Reviewe