Are greedy individuals more corrupt?

It is a widespread belief that greed keeps corruption alive. We tried to testify this belief and further proposed that this pattern would fade under conditions of low descriptive corruption norms. Therefore, two studies were conducted to examine the effect of greed on corruption and the buffering role of descriptive corruption norms. In Study 1, we strengthened support for the causal effect of greed on corruption. In Study 2, we further illustrated that greed positively predicted corrupt intent when descriptive corruption norms were high; by contrast, the relationship disappeared when descriptive corruption norms were low. The present research refines the belief that greed leads to corruption absolutely, and suggests feasible ways to reduce the negative influence of greed on corruption.