How Do Profiles of Greed Map onto Multifaceted Well-Being?

Dispositional greed is often treated as a maladaptive trait, but its links to life satisfaction, presence of meaning, search for meaning, and psychological richness, from a person-centered approach, remain underexplored. We measured these constructs in 586 Chinese university students, then used correlation analysis, latent profile analysis (LPA), and the Bolck-Croon-Hagenaars (BCH) method to test associations and profile differences. Greed correlated positively with all four indicators. LPA yielded three profiles: Low-Greed (6.7%), Average-Greed (84.0%), and High-Greed (9.4%). BCH analyses showed significant differences in psychological richness, presence of meaning, and search for meaning. The effect on life satisfaction was marginal. The Low-Greed profile scored lower than the other two profiles on psychological richness and search for meaning; the High-Greed profile also exceeded the Average-Greed profile on search for meaning. These results suggest that greed is not uniformly detrimental. Its links to well-being are graded: strongest for search for meaning and psychological richness, weakest for life satisfaction.