The psychology of greed ⏲️ 6 Minute English

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English from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil. And I'm Beth.

I'm writing my birthday wish list,

Beth. Listen, I want a new laptop, a gold Rolex watch and a red sports car.

That is quite a lot,

Neil. Isn't that a bit greedy?

So what! Greed is good. We are genetically built to want things

that increase our social status. Power and material possessions like money,

a nice house, a fast car and all that stuff.

I'm not so sure Neil. Remember

greed is also one of the seven deadly sins.

In this programme, we'll be discussing greed –

the desire to accumulate stuff,

keep it for yourself and not share it with others.

And of course, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

But first I have a question for you, Beth.

You reminded me of a famous quote by one of history's greatest leaders,

'The world has enough for everyone's need, but not everyone's greed'.

But who said it? Was it:

A. the Dalai Lama,

B. Mahatma Gandhi or C. Martin Luther King?

I think it was Mahatma Gandhi. OK, Beth.

I'll reveal the correct answer at the end of the programme.

At the neurological level,

greed is controlled by the reward centre of the brain.

Greedy people feel good when they choose the stuff they want

and this happens at the unconscious, emotional level of the brain

meaning there is little conscious awareness about how greedy actions

might affect others or be unfair. What does this look like  

in real life? That's what University of California

psychologist, Professor Paul Piff, investigated using the

classic family board game, Monopoly. The game was rigged to give one

'rich' player an advantage by letting them roll two dice

instead of one, and collecting twice as much money as the poor player

when passing Go.

So, what happened when Professor Piff asked the 'rich' players why they had

inevitably won the fixed game?

Listen to the answer he gave to BBC

Radio 4 programme, Seven Deadly Psychologies:  

...they took credit for their wins.

They talked about how they'd controlled their own outcomes,

they talked about how it was the decisions

they made that had led to their being ultimately victorious, and

not the flip of a coin that randomly got them into that position of privilege

in the first place. Now, I don't know that

this is a perfect model for how privilege,

success or wealth operates in everyday life.

Some people indeed have worked themselves up by their bootstraps

and get what they have because they worked hard...

Interestingly, the rich players took credit for winning.

If you take credit for something, you accept praise and recognition

for doing something, whether or not that praise and recognition is deserved.

In fact, it was the fixed game that determined who would win and lose,

not anything the players did. Professor Piff uses the expression,

the flip of a coin, to describe something which is based solely

on random chance, like when you flip a coin into the air.

Whether it lands on heads or tails

is pure luck. Yet

the winning players claimed they won

thanks to their own skill and ability. Here,

Professor Piff uses

another idiom, to pull yourself up by your bootstraps,

meaning to improve your situation through your own hard work,

without help from anyone else. Worryingly,

the experiment showed how feeling financially better off

than others can easily change into feeling better than others. And

the reason behind these feelings could be what

money buys you, especially one thing:

space. If you're rich,

you own a big house. At work

you have your own spacious, private office.

You live in your own private bubble.

Here's Professor Piff, again talking with BBC

Radio 4’s, Seven Deadly Psychologies:

People who are well-off are just more socially independent.

They don't need others in their lives as much,

and when you don't need others,

well, your empathy might suffer as a result.

People who are well-off, and rich enough to do

what they want, rely on other people less. As a result,

they may lack empathy – the ability to share someone else's feelings

by imagining what it would be like to be them.

Maybe it's not greed itself

that's bad, but the things we're greedy for. Being greedy for social justice

or a clean environment is good,

right? Something to be admired by the world leader in your question, Neil...

Yes, I asked you

who said 'The world has enough for everyone's need,

but not everyone's greed.'

You said it was Mahatma Gandhi,

which was... the correct answer, Beth.

OK, let's recap the vocabulary

we have learned from this programme,

starting with stuff - an informal word for material possessions.

To take credit for something means to allow people to believe

that something you did deserves praise or recognition.

The phrase, a flip of a coin,

refers to an action or decision based on luck or random chance.

If you pull yourself up by your bootstraps,

you improve your situation through your own efforts,

without help from anyone else.

Someone who is well-off

is rich enough to be able to have most of what they want.

And finally, empathy means experiencing someone else's feelings

by putting yourself in their place. Once again

our six minutes are up.

Join us again soon for more trending topics and useful vocabulary here

at Six Minute

English. Goodbye

for now. Goodbye!