Abstract: As one of the important attributes of human being, greed has been widely discussed in academic fields such as philosophy and economics. In the present paper, we first summarized the characteristics of greed, put forth its definition and focused on the greed for material. Then, the mechanism of how situational factors influence individual’s attitude to greed and how the greed motivation affects individual’s behavior were expounded. As the process of deciding whether to conduct greedy behavior, greed decision-making is influenced by self-consciousness and emotions. The Greed Decision-making Process Model (GDMPM), integrating both controlling and automatic processes, helps interpreting the interaction of self-interest and socio-morality. Though relatively innovative, GDMPM is still to be improved. The directions for further researches were proposed ultimately.

Key words: greed, attitude, motivation, decision-making, morality