By Adrian Furnham
As one of the seven cardinal sins, greed is a trait no one wants to be accused of. While people detest and avoid greedy people by default, this exposition into the psychology of greed will show how greed can sometimes be beneficial.
- “Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.” – Erich Fromm
- “Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed.” – Albert Einstein
- “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies and cuts through to the essence of the evolutionary spirit.” – Gordon Gekko
- Greed is a powerful emotion that can blind even the most level-headed of us, causing us to ignore both morality and logic in its pursuit.” – George Bernard Shaw
- “The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm: capitalism is that kind of a system.” – Milton Friedman
- “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” – Luke 12:15
- “Selfishness and greed, individual or national, cause most of our troubles.” – Harry S. Truman
- “He who dies with the most toys wins.” – Uncertain
- “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” – Matthew 8: 36-38.
- “My desires are simple: I want everything.” – Uncertain
Money, possessions and happiness
How much money, expressed as annual income from all sources, do you need to maximise your happiness? Greedy people say they expect to be happier with more money and more possessions. But then they readjust their desire and expectations, so they never have enough: they cannot be satisfied. This gives them great drive, but also great frustration.
Greed is one of the deadly sins. It is defined as a consuming desire for wealth or affluence, causing one to think of little else. It is about being covetous and ravenous. Greed is closely associated with the more serious terms of avarice and covetousness. Nearly all religions, in all periods of history, have condemned avarice and greed. In many cultures, greedy children are admonished and punished for their selfishness and indulgence. Greed is about self-ISH-ness rather than self-LESS-ness.
Greed is about getting more (and more) of what you want. It is supposedly an insatiable desire for more of everything: income; possessions; influence; power; sex; and privileges. It means wanting more of anything judged to be desirable to the individual.
There are many definitions of greed: “an insatiable desire for more resources, monetary or other”; “a desire to acquire more and the dissatisfaction of never having enough”; “a desire to get more at all costs”. One theme identifies it as addiction to having, as seen in compulsive shopping, gambling and eating.
Greed can be highly motivating…which may not be a bad thing.
Greed can be highly motivating…which may not be a bad thing. But greed is also about being self-interested and not caring for others, even one’s family and personal health. Hence, it is often associated with antisocial, unethical and deviant behaviours. Greed may be characterized by chancing potentially negative consequences that result from one’s own actions: an excessive desire for more at all costs that may be at the expense of others. So it’s a dark trait and it has serious drug-like qualities.
Greed is also related to impulsiveness and self-control. When people have willpower they can resist the urge to act upon their impulses. However, when willpower is limited, people usually give in to these urges.
Thus clinical, personality and social psychologists have tended to see greed as essentially pathological: bad for the greedy person and all who encounter them. It is sometimes seen as a “clinical” condition associated with such disorders as kleptomania, depression and low self-esteem. The idea is that accumulating “stuff” is a poor substitute for other things like friendship. Greedy people get into a negative spiral where their behaviour leads them to be shunned by others, the very people whose respect they want!
Many questionnaires have attempted to measure greed. The statements that greedy people endorse are pretty self-evident: One can never have too much money; As soon as I have acquired something, I start to think about the next thing I want; My life motto is ‘‘more is better’’; I can’t imagine having too many things, etc. Surprisingly, greedy people tend to be proud of their greediness, seeing it as competitiveness and achievement orientation.
Positive and negative views
Greed is Good
Gordon Gekko: Wall Street was a 1987 film about a corporate psychopath who was the epitome of all that is brash and vulgar about greed. It was much admired in the “greed is good” 1980s.
Obviously, not everyone thinks that greed is necessarily bad. From an economic viewpoint, it is even possible to argue that “greed is healthy” because people always prefer more of a desirable good: “the axiom of maximization/greed”. It has been seen as a virtue that leads to economic development and prosperity. Thus, greedy people may generate more personal and business income than less greedy ones. Greed has been associated with positive economic outcomes such as more employment, wealth, and well-being. And because whatever is achieved is not enough, it is a deeply motivational force.
Also, greed has an evolutionary benefit: it helps in coping with resource insecurity and scarcity. Greed thus motivates people to acquire more; which is good for their and others’ survival. Greed can be seen as a form of “adaptation to resource uncertainty”.
A Dutch team led by Seuntjens et al. (2015) notes “In situations where our behavior affects the outcomes of other people, such as in the economic games…. greedily striving for more for oneself could easily lead to worse outcomes for the people around us. Indeed, it is especially because greed may be harmful to others that many religions and philosophers have condemned greed. However, in situations where no such inter-dependencies exist, greed can actually be beneficial. For example, in situations where huge amounts of effort are necessary to achieve excellence, such as athletes striving to ever improve their performances, scientists striving to ever further our understanding of the world, or artists striving to achieve ever higher peaks of expression, greed may be productive. In addition, greed may lead individuals to create economic surplus because they aggregate more goods or wealth than they need.” (p 929)
Thus, it is possible to put a positive spin on the concept of greed. Many greedy behaviours could be considered to be a manifestation of ambition, success or achievement orientation. There is considerable psychological work on the Need for Achievement or Achievement Motivation which can be traced back to the personality theorist, Murray, who included Achievement as one of his 20 basic needs. It was defined as: The desire to accomplish something difficult; to master, manipulate, or organize physical objects, human beings, or ideas; to do this as rapidly and independently as possible; to excel oneself and to rival and surpass others. This need was seen to be a largely unconscious, dispositional tendency, general in nature, not specifically linked to situations and stable over time.
There are many questions about ambitiousness. Ambitious for what? Money? Power? Recognition? Where does ambitiousness come from? Who are the pathologically over-ambitious? Why do some people simply lack ambition? Why are some people not able to match their abilities and ambitiousness? Are self- and observer-reports of ambitiousness correlated?
Greed is Bad
Greed is also related to emotional instability, neuroticism, lower self-esteem, and less trust in others. Greedy people are not attractive; not good to be around. But why are greedy people not happy people? It is because they compare themselves frequently with others who are better off, and they feel envious and deprived as a result. Greedy people seem always envious.
The psychological literature shows that greed also correlates with various (dark) traits, such as Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, and antagonism. Greedy people are also bad company: bad in your work team, bad in your social group, bad in your community. One does not have to be always selfless but certainly never selfish.
There are a number of significant questions in this area:
- Is greed a personality trait? That is, is greediness stable over time (once greedy, always greedy) and across situations (at work, in the home)? If there is a trait, what are its biological and environmental determinants? Are people “made greedy” by their early environment; or is it somehow linked to other (pathological) traits such as narcissism? Can you inherit greediness? At this stage, there is insufficient data to answer the question, though it does seem that greed has trait-like characteristics.
- What behaviours are associated with greed? Various studies have tried to answer this question. There appear to be three traits associated with greed: first, ambition, competitiveness and drive; second, unhappiness, unfulfillment and (paradoxically) self-doubt; third, egocentrism, selfishness and being unempathetic. Some greedy beliefs and behaviours seem quite simply sad and pathological, but others could be seen to be associated with success in certain fields.
- Are greedy people attracted to different jobs and industries? Clearly, different jobs attract different people based on their motivation. Some people are driven by service and personal sacrifice while others are driven by success, measured by money and acclaim. Some jobs in business, law and finance offer significant monetary rewards and it may be expected that greedy people would be more attracted to them.
Materialism
Materialism is the importance a person attaches to possessions. The ownership and acquisition of material goods that are believed to deliver major life goals and desired status like happiness. Possessions, for the materialist, are central to their lives, a sign of success and a source of happiness.
A materialist orientation is generally associated with less generosity, and caring less about other people. The underlying goal of all materialism, psychologists say, is to overcome insecurity by attaining social prestige, which is driven by total extrinsic materialism.
Different societies at different times have expressed very different attitudes to materialism. The ancient Greeks and the nineteenth-century romantics were against the pursuit of material goods because they believed it ‘‘interfered’’ with the pursuit of virtue. Thus some see it as associated with envy, possessiveness and non-generosity while others see it as relating to happiness and success. Self-control and success vs. spiritual emptiness, environmental degradation and social inequity. This is why ‘‘post-materialism’’ is seen as a good thing. Equally, there is the emergence of the new materialists who buy goods for durability, functionality and quality and who have an ambiguous, even hypocritical attitude to possessions.
Materialism is seen as an outcome and driving force of capitalism that benefits society because it drives growth. Materialism for certain individuals can increase their sense of belonging, identity, meaning and empowerment. We are what we own. Others argue that the ideology of materialism is misplaced and leads to individual and social problems such as compulsive buying, hoarding, and kleptomania. Materialism is really about self-enhancement.
Some researchers have suggested that peer influence is important in determining adolescents’ materialistic attitudes along with parental communication, parental materialism and religious beliefs.
Materialism is seen as an outcome and driving force of capitalism that benefits society because it drives growth.
Perhaps the easiest way to understand materialism is to see how it is measured by psychologists. Scales for use with children such as the Consumer Involvement Scale with three dimensions: Dissatisfaction (“I feel like other kids have more stuff than I do”; “I wish my parents earned more money”); Consumer Orientation (“I care a lot about my games, toys and other possessions”; “I like shopping and going to stores”); and Brand Awareness (“Brand names matter to me”; “Being cool is important to me”). It has been shown that the more materialistic children were, the lower their self-esteem, the more conflict they had with parents and the more engaged they were in the consumer society.
Consumption, some argue, is good for the development of identity, a sense of belonging and meaning. Others point to the evidence of reduced wellbeing among those most materialistic and the data on compulsive buying.
There is disagreement also about the correlates of materialism. Some studies suggest males are more materialistic than females – others the opposite. Equally, the data on age, education and income correlates of materialism are unclear.
Many researchers have demonstrated materialists are selfish and self-centred and more dissatisfied and discontent with life. It is linked in adolescence to television and computer usage, negative attitudes to parents, lack of time doing homework and household chores, and lower self-esteem.
To have or to be
Fifty years ago, Erich Fromm wrote a best seller called To Have or to Be. He contrasted two ways of living. He argued that many modern societies were based on two erroneous principles: first, the aim of life is to maximize pleasure and happiness; and that egoism, selfishness and greed lead to the opposite of harmony and peace.
He argued we need to be, not have. His list of recommendations included security, sense of identity, and confidence based on faith in what one is; one’s need for relatedness, interest, love, and solidarity with the world around one; instead of on one’s desire to have, to possess, to control the world, and thus become the slave of one’s possession. He opined that joy comes from giving and sharing, not from, hoarding and exploiting.
Greed at work
Greed, when left unchecked, can have detrimental effects on team success in sports and organizational settings. Greedy people are selfish; takers not givers. Many feel resentfully under-benefited, demanding to be given more recognition, promotion and salary.
Greed, when left unchecked, can have detrimental effects on team success in sports and organizational settings.
They seem marked by a lack of cooperation and collaboration: a hyper-competitive mindset, prioritizing personal success and gain over the collective goals of the team. Many greedy workers exaggerate their contribution to their team and the organisation.
In essence, individual greed leads to distrust and conflict: It can breed distrust and create an atmosphere of competition, conflict and animosity, as it elicits a deep sense of unfairness and inequity in teams. It may also lead to diminished teamwork and communication. Greed can prevent honest communication by withholding information, and deceitful practices aiming at personal advantage. Personal greed often leads to reduced performance and goal attainment: Greed comes at the expense of team success by failure to fulfil roles. Most of all, greed can easily lead to a negative team culture: greed can cause a toxic team culture by backstabbing and selfishness.
Conclusion
Being ambitious and competitive is good, being greedy and selfish is bad. We rightly admire the hard-working entrepreneur, the person eager to “better themselves” and the sportsperson prepared to sacrifice a lot to be “the winner”. But we don’t admire them if their means to success are deeply egocentric and unfair.
People on their deathbed hardly say they wished they had accumulated more possessions (toys) and accolades. Indeed, it seems the case that many very ambitious, competitive and successful people spend the second part of their lives giving away all they strived for, partly because of guilt and partly from the realisation that they have enough to live well on.
Adrian Furnham
