Greedy bastards:Testing the relationship between wanting more and unethical behavior

Greed is often seen as immoral. Although the assumption that greed elicits unethical behavior is widespread, there is surprisingly little empirical research testing this relationship. We present a series of three studies investigating the association between greed and unethical behavior, using different methodologies and samples from the USA, The Netherlands, and Belgium. Study 1 (3 samples, total N = 3413) reveals that more greedy individuals find a variety of transgressions more acceptable and justifiable as well as indicate that they have more often engaged in a variety of transgressions compared to less greedy individuals. Study 2 (N = 172) replicated these findings in an incentivized behavioral laboratory study where participants decided to accept a bribe or not. Greedy people were more likely to take a bribe and also preferred higher bribes. Study 3 (N = 302) examined a potential process relating greed to unethical behavior. Greedy people were more likely to transgress because they found the positive outcomes associated with the transgression more desirable, and therefore displayed lower self-control. Implications for general theories of greed and morality are discussed

Dispositional greed

Greed is an important motive: it is seen as both productive (a source of ambition; the motor of the economy) and destructive (undermining social relationships; the cause of the late 2000s financial crisis). However, relatively little is known about what greed is and does. This article reports on 5 studies that develop and test the 7-item Dispositional Greed Scale (DGS). Study 1 (including 4 separate samples from 2 different countries, total N = 6092) provides evidence for the construct and discriminant validity of the DGS in terms of positive correlations with maximization, self-interest, envy, materialism, and impulsiveness, and negative correlations with self-control and life satisfaction. Study 2 (N = 290) presents further evidence for discriminant validity, finding that the DGS predicts greedy behavioral tendencies over and above materialism. Furthermore, the DGS predicts economic behavior: greedy people allocate more money to themselves in dictator games (Study 3, N = 300) and ultimatum games (Study 4, N = 603), and take more in a resource dilemma (Study 5, N = 305). These findings shed light on what greed is and does, how people differ in greed, and how greed can be measured. In addition, they show the importance of greed in economic behavior and provide directions for future studies

When enough is not enough:Overearning as a manifestation of dispositional greed

Overearning is the tendency to forgo leisure and to earn more than one needs. Despite the important individual and societal consequences of overearning, little is known about who overearns and why. We examined the role of dispositional greed in explaining overearning. Study 1, an incentivized behavioral lab study (N = 153), found that greedy individuals showed overearning to a larger degree than less greedy individuals. A follow-up survey (N = 297) suggested that greedy people overearn more because they find the pursuit of wealth more important, not because they find the associated labor less aversive. Consistent with these findings, Study 2 (N = 472), finds that greedy people value money more than time, a pattern associated with lower well-being. Finally, Study 3, another incentivized behavioral lab study with two measurement moments (Ntime-1 = 185; Ntime-2 = 133), re- plicated and extended the findings of Study 1 to a longitudinal context. People do appear to learn from over- earning in the past, as overearning was reduced from time 1 to time 2. However, even at time 2, overearning was observed and greedy individuals showed a larger degree of overearning. Implications for what we can do to prevent overearning and increase well-being are discussed

Greed and adolescent financial behavior

Financial problems in adolescents have increased over the last decades. We investigated if individual differences in greed relate to financial behavior. Greed is an important motive for economic behavior and refers to the tendency to never be satisfied and to always want more. We developed a short version of the Dispositional Greed Scale (Seuntjens, Zeelenberg, Van de Ven, & Breugelmans, 2015), which we then used in a large survey with adolescents (N = 3899). Dispositional greed is associated with them having more income, spending more, saving less often, and having debt more often. Identifying what personality characteristics influence financial behavior at a young age is important, as the financial habits that people learn during adolescence persist in adulthood. We find that greed has both positive effects (having a higher income), but also negative effects with the greedy being less likely to save and being more likely to have a debt

The role of mindful parenting in individual and social decision-making in children

Children are confronted with an increasing amount of choices every day, which can be stressful. Decision-making skills may be one of the most important "21st century skills" that children need to master to ensure success. Many aspects of decision-making, such as emotion regulation during stressful situations, develop in the context of caregiver-child interactions. This study examined whether mindful parenting predicts children's individual and social decision-making. The current study included 63 mother-child dyads from The Netherlands (Child M-age = 5.11, SD = 0.88, 50.8% girls). Mothers completed the Dutch version of the Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting Scale (IM-P). A "Choice Task" was developed to measure individual decision-making skills, and a "Sharing Task" was created to measure social decision-making in young children. Higher maternal mindful parenting significantly predicted more sharing after controlling for covariates (child age, sex, SES, maternal education level; Wald = 4.505, p = 0.034). No main effect of maternal mindful parenting was found for any of the individual decision-making measures. These findings suggest that mindful parenting supports children's social decision-making. Future research should investigate if the combination of mindful parenting and children's early decision-making skills predict key developmental outcomes