Cogito ergo sum
Just Thinking About Money Can Turn the Mind Stingy
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: November 21, 2006
One of the most comforting versions of the American dream includes becoming not only rich, respected and glamorous, but also a soft touch: generous with time and money, a philanthropist-mensch, a nurturing prince or princess of industry.
But if a paper published last week in the journal Science is any measure, that impulse to share does not come naturally to anyone who is thinking about money, even unconsciously.
In a series of experiments, psychologists found that subconscious reminders of money prompted people to become more independent in their work, less likely to seek help from others or to provide it. They became reluctant to volunteer their time and stingy when asked to donate to a worthy cause.
“Everybody says that if they had the money, they’d give more away, they’d do what Warren Buffett did,” said Kathleen D. Vohs, lead author of the study, referring to the financier who recently donated more than $30 billion of his assets to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“Well, we thought that that was a nice thing to bring into the lab, to test in a variety of ways,” added Dr. Vohs, a psychologist in the University of Minnesota school of management.
Her co-authors were Nicole Mead of Florida State University and Miranda Goode, a graduate student in marketing at the University of British Columbia.
In one experiment, involving 52 undergraduates, the students unscrambled sets of jumbled phrases. One group untangled phrases that were often about money like “high a salary paying.” A second group solved word puzzles that did not refer to money.
The researchers then had the students work on a difficult abstract puzzle that stumps most people and offered to help if the students wanted it. Those who had been thinking about money worked on the problem an average of more than five minutes before asking for help, almost 70 percent longer than the others.
By “priming” unconscious thoughts in similar ways, the researchers found that students with money on their minds, while clearly self-reliant, were less likely than peers who had not been primed to lend assistance: twice as slow to help a confused student on a word problem and about twice as cheap when asked to donate to help needy students.
Having money on the mind even caused the students to put more distance — literally — between themselves and others. Instructed to place two chairs together to meet another student, they put the chairs about 47 inches apart, compared with 31 inches for the students who had not been prompted.
The researchers say this effect of money is plainly evident in everyday life. People with resources do not recruit friends to help run a party. They hire a caterer. Students with money do not give a moving party with pizza. They hire a mover.
“We know there is a civilizing side to money, that people acting in a self-interested fashion depend on fellow humans in a community and tend to treat them fairly,” said George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. “But this study shows its pernicious side, how the pursuit of money can be isolating.
“This study really came out of the blue. I don’t know of any precedent for this work.”
In the study, people’s personal attributes made little difference. This effect of money on behavior was as strong in women as in men, and it did not change with the students’ backgrounds. Daughters of high-end bankers behaved just like sons of plumbers.
“And none of them realized the studies were about money,” Dr. Vohs said. “It was all unconscious.”
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Be careful of what you think.
Thoughts, Desires, Believes can easily manifest into phyiscal realities, either consciously or unconsciously.
People see the things that they want to see because people believe the things that they want to believe. Such is the power of Self-delusion. This is neither bad nor good phenomemon for humans. Everyone uses this ability a little once a while for various reasons.
The only danger would be when one tries to pass his delusions on to others. One can choose to die in his own shit, but please, don't convince or force others to die in your shit too.