Abstract
Self-interest, selfishness, and greed are some of the most negative personality traits. Greedy individuals often engage in unethical behaviors regardless of the existing legal regulations and moral imperatives. During the pandemic of COVID-19 individuals are engaging in behaviors that can be characterized as deceptive and unethical, such as hoarding of products and profiteering. The current study discusses a thesis that greed is a driver of unethical behavior and examines the hoarding of products and profiteering in the greed-unethical behavior context. The conclusions suggest that greed and opportunism are critical factors behind humans behaving self-interestedly and engaging in hoarding and profiteering behavior. The current study contributes to the understanding of human behavior, particularly unethical behavior, and provides insight into the effects of the COVID-19 crisis in terms of the individual actions of hoarding products and profiteering by selling scarce products with a considerable profit margin.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a severe threat to the world
The current study contributes to the understanding of human behavior, unethical behavior, and provides insight into the effects of the COVID-19 crisis in terms of the individual actions of hoarding products and profiteering by selling scarce products with a considerable profit margin
Given that profiteering during COVID-19 can be viewed as unethical behavior, we conclude: Proposition 4 Profiteering during COVID-19 pandemics can be attributed to greed
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a severe threat to the world. The number of human lives, claimed by the pandemic, is still increasing, with a number of death cases exceeding 252.000 (WHO, 4 May 2020). The current study addresses the factors behind humans behaving self-interestedly and engaging in hoarding and profiteering behavior. We discuss such behaviors and the COVID-19 context from an ethical perspective. The current study attempts to discuss the effects of the COVID-19 crisis in terms of the behavior of individuals, particular to their actions of hoarding products and profiteering by selling scarce products with a considerable profit margin. The discussion covers specific factor of greed which influence human perception and activities, hoarding and profiteering. Another purpose of this work is to better depict changes in behavioral patterns during the pandemics. Theoretical framework is employed to analyze what are the main factors driving such behavior, leading us to conceptualize a model, followed by a discussion and a conclusion
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