Once again, Associate Professor Kathleen Vohs is studying how money changes us. An established consumer psychologist, Vohs and her co-authors recently decided to build on past studies on the effects of money on social interaction. In her earlier research, Vohs had discovered concrete evidence that mere reminders of money made people feel more self-sufficient and less likely to offer help or seek companionship. Even stimuli as subtle as screensavers of floating dollars on nearby computers activated what the researchers called “a self-sufficient state.”

 

 

“We decided to push this idea further,” Vohs explains, “and ask ‘What would a self-sufficient-person be able to do?’ And being able to resist pain was very much on the edge of what we thought they could do.” Vohs then designed studies in which she could use her original insight – that thoughts of money boosted the “inner resource” of self-sufficiency – and look for physical effects.

 

 

Vohs still expresses surprise at the results of the latest experiments. “We had some people handle money, some handle plain paper, and others think about money they didn’t have any more to compare how they would react to a physical challenge.” When these subjects had their hands dipped in uncomfortably hot water, it was clear: those who had counted currency reported feeling less pain than those who had not. And the participants who were reminded of long-gone money? They felt the most pain of all. “At a psychological level, we showed that people whose inner resources were bolstered by thoughts of money were better able to cope with physical and even social challenges.”

 

 

Vohs says that money obviously has a host of consequences, since we have so many experiences with it. But, she believes, conscientious people can harness the power of this effect by aligning their personal goals with money. “You could, for instance, give yourself a paid incentive to slim down, and we’d expect that to be quite effective.” On the other hand, Vohs advises, “Don’t use money for an interpersonal goal, like having your children get along better. Our results say that money makes people want to go it alone rather than work together. In that case, cash might make the problem worse!”

 

 

Dr. Vohs’s article, “The Symbolic Power of Money,” is in the June 2009 issue of the journal Psychological Science.