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.