It’s Official: Money Messes with Your Mind

From Psychological Science…

Money may have a bigger psychological impact on us than we realize.

A new study in the journal Psychological Science finds that merely thinking about money can affect how we perceive physical pain and feelings of social rejection.

Researchers found that feeling rejected stirred a greater desire for money and that thoughts about losing money made social rejection sting more. They also found that thinking about having money made physical pain feel less acute, thoughts of losing money made physical pain worse, and being in physical pain made people want money more.

The authors conclude that “even the mere idea of money can have benefits.”

Money, they write, “operates as a social resource that confers a broad, strong feeling of being able to cope with problems and satisfy one’s needs. Resources are valued more in times of threat and adversity than at other times, presumably because resources improve one’s overall ability to cope. Getting or having resources reduces pain and suffering; conversely, losing resources makes one more vulnerable, which intensifies suffering.”

Would people suffering from a painful disease or treatment find it easier to handle the pain if they were given $100 bills to count? Would socially excluded kids be less likely to feel rejection if their teacher had them participate in, say, a math lesson in which they counted money?

Those are “two good ways the manipulation could be used,” Professor Vohs said in an e-mail. “Other ideas are to have men count money before they go out hitting on women — because they are going to be rejected a lot. Or since money elicits feelings of strength, football players could count it before heading out onto the field (or maybe especially at halftime).”