Greed begins with a perfectly normal reward system within the brain.

“High future discounting” is when the value of a reward decreases the further into the future it is delayed.

Dispositional greed is encoded in molecular mechanisms, especially those involving dopamine.

In the political thriller “Scandal,” which aired from 2012 through 2018, the main character, crisis manager Olivia Pope, exclaims, “I don’t understand the kind of people who have everything, but still want more.” Although Pope never uses the word greed, her wording fits a commonly employed description of this, to most people, maddening and relatively incomprehensible character trait.

Psychological Impact of Greed

Greed can be usefully defined as an insatiable desire for more: wealth, power, or possessions. The keyword is insatiable. A unique psychological component of greed, as mentioned by Pope, consists of never being satisfied with what one has, but constantly wanting more. “Dispositional greed” is the psychological term for this tendency over the long-term to want more and more, and to feel dissatisfied with what one already has. Not surprisingly, such an attitude can almost be guaranteed to exact emotional costs: frustration, impulsivity, aggression, and exploitative behaviors, along with their consequences. Controlled studies have also found significant associations between greed and depression, aggression, and detrimental interpersonal relationships accompanied by a general decline in mental health.

These findings on the harmful effects of greed have not so far provided a categorical distinction between normal acquisitiveness and greed. Rather than a clear demarcation, research suggests a continuum involving character traits such as reward seeking, emotional regulation, anticipation, motivation, and appraisals of the future........

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