Greed is desire for more than enough. It sits in the Emotion dimension (EMO) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-EMO-0012, within the Level 5 family. The core principle: desire for more than enough. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
Scientific Definition
Desire for more than enough
Plain-English Definition
Desire for more than enough
Feynman Explanation
Desire for more than enough
Core Principle
Desire for more than enough
Mechanisms
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Inputs (Triggers)
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Outputs (Behaviors)
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Behavioral Signature
Desire for more than enough
Examples
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Original analysis from The Incentives Lab — how this element behaves inside real payoff structures.
Why this element matters to incentive design
This is one of the elements leaders describe as a values gap. It is a payoff gap. The mechanism underneath it operates in the Emotion dimension — how do we feel?. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: desire for more than enough. Every element in the Emotion dimension changes the perceived payoff of an action before the action happens, which is exactly where incentive design has leverage.
How it gets exploited
Left undesigned, this element is exploited the ordinary way: someone discovers that triggering it is cheaper than earning the outcome it stands in for. The pattern is the same one Goodhart's Law describes: the measurable proxy attracts the effort, and the purpose behind it quietly loses funding.
How the Lab designs around it
The redesign move is to make the desired behavior observable, remove whatever currently pays for its opposite, and attach the reward to the behavior rather than to the noisy outcome downstream of it. Measure the behavior, not the sentiment. A survey will tell you how people feel about this; only observed action tells you whether it changed.
Famous Experiments
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Design Principles
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Measurement Approaches
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Evidence
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The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
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Interactive Mini Network
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Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Shared feelings become norms
We feel with others
Hope, awe, dread
Anger, outrage, compassion
Seeks connection and safety
We notice things selectively
Systems that shape our future
Complex adaptive systems
Unites millions around ideas
Humanity learns together
Drives innovation and differentiation
Patterns between two people
Where Greed is cited in the corpus
Essays, field guides, and diagnostics from The Incentives Lab that apply this element.
- EssayWe Change to Avoid Pain
The affective engine behind most organizational change.
- ReferenceThe Lab's philosophy
Filter, anchor, condition safety.
- ReferenceThe Periodic Table of Human Behavior
The full 1,267-element map this page belongs to.
- ReferenceThe incentive glossary
Definitions for every mental model, bias, and fallacy in the corpus.
Questions about Greed
- What is Greed?
- Greed is desire for more than enough. It sits in the Emotion dimension (EMO) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-EMO-0012, within the Level 5 family. The core principle: desire for more than enough. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
- How is Greed exploited?
- It is exploited when triggering the behavior becomes cheaper than producing the outcome the behavior is supposed to signal — the standard perverse-incentive path.
- How do you design around Greed?
- Name the behavior you want in observable terms, remove what currently pays for the opposite, attach the reward to the behavior rather than a lagging proxy, and publish how you will detect gaming.
- Which behavioral dimension does Greed belong to?
- Greed is classified in the Emotion dimension (EMO) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Level 5", class "Behavioral Force". Its permanent identifier is HBT-EMO-0012 and its evidence grade is B.