Greed

There's something fascinating about wealthy, famous families fighting over their respective shares of the family fortune. This has been recently played out in the Australian context by Gina Rinehart and her children. At its core, it's a story about greed and the destruction it can wreak on our closest relationships. So what is greed? Perhaps it can be summed up as the drive to acquire more for the sake of acquiring more, with no consideration for the needs of others. Alongside greed, there seems to exist the assumption that security and contentment will come from the acquisition of more goods. 

Selfish behaviour, including greed, is behaviour that facilitates biological survival - it drives us to secure resources to keep ourselves and our kin safe. But although touting humans as selfish is a little depressing (but probably not news for most of us), we're not "all bad". Humans, although being wired for greed, also demonstrate the ability to override their biological wiring; humans are able to choose any number of behaviours, unlike animals, some which fly in the face of selfish self-interest, some of which can be altruistic and selfless.