title: State- and trait-greed, its impact on risky decision-making and underlying neural mechanisms.
abstract: We investigated whether greed would predict risky decision-making and recorded neural responses during a monetary gambling task using the electroencephalogram. We found that individuals high in trait-greed took higher risks to maximize monetary outcome. Furthermore, this relation was moderated by state-greed; specifically, trait-greed had a stronger impact on risky decision-making when activated by situational characteristics. On the neural level, greedy individuals showed a specific response to favorable and unfavorable outcomes. Specifically, they had a reduced feedback-related negativity-difference score to these events, indicating that they might have difficulty in learning from experience, especially from mistakes and negative feedback. It is concluded that greed may explain risky and reckless behavior in diverse settings, such as investment banking, and may account for phenomena such as stock market bubbles.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology I, Differential Psychology, Personality Psychology, and Psychological Diagnostics , Julius Maximilians University Würzburg , Würzburg , Germany.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mussel
authors.forename: Andrea M F
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Reiter
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Osinsky
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hewig
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D030141:Feedback, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005715:Gambling / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012309:Risk-Taking; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cognitive neuroscience; Feedback-related negativity; Personality; Psychopathy; Risk taking