Who says money can’t bring happiness?
| July 27, 2009 | 10:01 AM
More journal entries from John Moore »
Penny for your thoughts? Or better yet, a yuan?
The more money the better, even when it comes to easing physical pain, a study suggests.
Apparently just touching currency can buck you up — whether it’s dollars or Chinese yuan (about $7) — according to a research led by a psychologist at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China. You might say Xinyue Zhou’s team examined the power of the purse over things that hurt. Or the power of green over what makes you scream.
OK, maybe it wasn’t that bad. The research was actually part of six studies. To test money’s effect on pain, the researchers divided 96 recruits into two groups. One was told to count cash, and the other got stuck counting pieces of paper.
Wanna bet on what happened next?
They all got their fingers dunked in hot water. Those who had counted the money tended to rate their pain lower than those who hadn’t. Maybe they just thought their moist digits would stick better to the researchers’ cash.
Along with physical pain, the researchers looked at the emotional sting of bad social situations. (Deposit researcher joke here.) You could pretty much bank on the result: Those who had counted money reported feeling less distress after being snubbed by others.
Experts hope psychology will profit from the study, through a better grasp of money’s effect on our emotions. And it could lead to a better understanding of why some people become addicted to making piles of cash.
Not that many of us have to worry about that these days.
Read more at livescience.com.
Resources to help ease your pain:
cash, china, currency, emotions, hurt, money, pain, rejection, social situations, yuan
