title: Defining greed.
abstract: Although greed is both hailed as the motor of economic growth and blamed as the cause of economic crises, very little is known about its psychological underpinnings. Five studies explored lay conceptualizations of greed among U.S. and Dutch participants using a prototype analysis. Study 1 identified features related to greed. Study 2 determined the importance of these features; the most important features were classified as central (e.g., self-interested, never satisfied), whereas less important features were classified as peripheral (e.g., ambition, addiction). Subsequently, we found that, compared to peripheral features, participants recalled central features better (Study 3), faster (Study 4), and these central features were more present in real-life episodes of greed (Study 5). These findings provide a better understanding of the elements that make up the experience of greed and provide insights into how greed can be manipulated and measured in future research.
authors.affiliation: TIBER (Tilburg Institute for Behavioral Economics Research) and Department of Social Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Terri G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Seuntjens
authors.affiliation: TIBER (Tilburg Institute for Behavioral Economics Research) and Department of Social Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zeelenberg
authors.affiliation: TIBER (Tilburg Institute for Behavioral Economics Research) and Department of Social Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.|Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Seger M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Breugelmans
authors.affiliation: TIBER (Tilburg Institute for Behavioral Economics Research) and Department of Social Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Niels
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: van de Ven
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D012649:Self Concept; D012938:Social Perception; D012945:Social Values; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Greed; emotions; prototype analysis