Examining the role of harm-to-others in lay perceptions of greed

Abstract

Despite its centrality to public discourse and everyday ethical judgment and behavior, a robust understanding of how individuals form judgments of greed has been lacking from the organizational behavior literature. This paper closely examines the psychological process that turns resource-pursuing business practices into acts of greed in the minds of perceivers. In five studies, we show that perceivers base their judgments of agents’ greed not only on the apparent insatiability of the desires that motivate resource-pursuit (i.e., acquisitiveness), but on the degree to which resource-pursuit results in harm to others. Perceived harm contributes directly to judgments of greed and is also used as a standard for judging whether an agent’s motivating desires are excessive, and thus acquisitive. We develop a conceptual model for understanding perceptions of greed that builds on past work on the topic, and discuss normative implications of perceivers’ use of harm in judgments of greed.