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Greed: Taking a deadly sin to the lab

Author

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  • Razen, Michael
  • Stefan, Matthias

Abstract

The term greed has become very popular in the public debate. It is regularly argued, for instance, that greed is one of the deep-rooted reasons for the financial crisis, numerous incidents of fraud and growing inequalities in wealth. Despite its prominent role in current debates, however, empirical research on greedy behavior is rather sparse. We argue that the major impediment for observing greed empirically is the difficulty to separate it from related behaviorial conceptualizations. To overcome this methodological problem, we propose a modified version of the classic dictator game which allows us to unambiguously distinguish greed from similar types of behavior in an experimental environment. We find that greed is indeed observable under laboratory conditions and that it is even one of the predominant behaviors. We also find that feelings of entitlement significantly increase the frequency of greedy behavior. Further, our results indicate that feelings of social obligation have no impact on the proportion of greedy behavior, but result in equal sharing being the predominant choice.

Suggested Citation

  • Razen, Michael & Stefan, Matthias, 2019. "Greed: Taking a deadly sin to the lab," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 164-171.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:81:y:2019:i:c:p:164-171
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2019.06.001
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Sanjaya, Muhammad Ryan, 2023. "Antisocial behavior in experiments: What have we learned from the past two decades?," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 104-115.
    2. Hoyer, Karlijn & Zeisberger, Stefan & Breugelmans, Seger M. & Zeelenberg, Marcel, 2023. "A culture of greed: Bubble formation in experimental asset markets with greedy and non-greedy traders," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 32-52.
    3. Alan C. Logan & Christopher R. D’Adamo & Susan L. Prescott, 2023. "The Founder: Dispositional Greed, Showbiz, and the Commercial Determinants of Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(9), pages 1-20, April.
    4. Bachler, Sebastian & Haeussler, Stefan & Momsen, Katharina & Stefan, Matthias, 2024. "Do people willfully ignore decision support? Evidence from an online experiment," VfS Annual Conference 2024 (Berlin): Upcoming Labor Market Challenges 302404, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Experimental economics; Greed; Entitlement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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