Dispositional greed – The daily blog of behavioral and cognitive economics

Greedy people might be frowned upon, but are they the winners?

Greed has long been cast in a negative light, seen as a vice that leads to exploitation and decay. For centuries, Christians have listed it among the ‘seven deadly sins’. In contemporary life, greed is associated with corporate scandals that cause devastating losses for employees and communities, and research has linked it to corruption and unethical behaviour. These and other negative portrayals of greed mean that few of us would want to be labelled as ‘greedy’. Whether greed is bad for the greedy person, however, is a different question. One need only look at the attitudes of some famous people (including a recent US president), or to popular culture (eg, Gordon Gekko’s memorable claim that ‘Greed … is good’), to encounter the idea that greed – sinful or not – has plenty of benefits. ….[READ]