Insatiable Desires – Friends as Tools: Dispositional Greed in Social Relationships – Chapter 6

This dataset accompanies chapter 6 of the dissertation. Greed is an insatiable desire to acquire more. It can be experienced over both material and non-material outcomes, but extant research mainly focused on economic decisions. So far, little is known about greed in the realm of social relationships, even though social relationships are an important part of people’s lives and a predictor of wellbeing. In four studies, we investigated how dispositional greed is associated with various aspects of social relationships. We analyse both primary data and secondary survey data. Results reveal that greedy individuals are lonelier, objectify their friends more, and are both less satisfied with and less close to their social contacts. Greedy individuals have shorter relationships but talk to their friends more often. These findings shed light on the role of greed in shaping people’s social lives.

本数据集配套学位论文第6章。贪婪是一种永无止境的攫取欲，可体现在物质与非物质两类结果之上，但现有研究大多聚焦于经济决策领域。尽管社会关系是人类生活的重要组成部分，亦是幸福感的重要预测因子，但目前学界对社会关系范畴内的贪婪行为仍知之甚少。本研究通过四项研究探讨了特质性贪婪（dispositional greed）与社会关系各维度间的关联，同时分析了一手调研数据与二手调研数据。结果显示，具有高特质性贪婪的个体更为孤独，对朋友的物化程度更高，且对自身社会联结的满意度更低、亲密感更弱；这类群体的社会关系存续时间更短，但与朋友的联络频率却更高。本研究结果揭示了贪婪在塑造人类社会生活中的作用。