Psychological Development and Education ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (2): 193-201.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.05

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The Relationship between College Students’ Greed and Self-interest: The Moderating Role of Structural Power

LI Xiaoming1,2,3,4, MENG Yuan1, ZHANG Siming1   

  1. 1. Department of Psychology, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081;
    2. Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081;
    3. Center of Cultural and Social Psychology, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081;
    4. Cognition and Human Behavior Key Laboratory of Hunan Province, Changsha 410081
  • Published:2026-03-14

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Abstract: Greed is a key driver that leads to self-interest, and self-interested behavior often occurs in a certain power context. The present study explored the relationship between greed and self-interested behavior in the context of structural power among college students. The results showed that structural power could negatively moderate the relationship between greed and self-interest. In the low structural power condition, greed positively predicted self-interest. A high level of structure power could inhibit the positive predictive effect of greed on self-interested behavior (Study 1). However, the inhibition effect disappeared when structural power was unstable (Study 2). In conclusion, the results show that structural power can inhibit the externalization of college students’ greed into self-interested behavior, but the instability of power reduces this inhibiting effect.

Key words: greed, structural power, self-interest

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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