The idea that some people are motivated by an ethic of work above all for its own sake and not in the first place for pecuniary benefit or social goods (power, prestige, status, or material gain) or simply to be able to live has been long recognized. The first systematic investigation of this character type can be traced to the work of the pioneering German sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920) that originally took the form of a series of journal articles, was eventually published as a book in 1905, and was then translated into English by sociologist Talcott Parsons in 1930.

Weber’s explanation sought to identify the origins of the spirit of capitalism in the rise of a work ethic grounded in the Protestant Reformation and specifically ...