Abstract
The psychological model of thinking about money assumes that implicit reminders of money lead to self-sufficient motivation. Previous research has demonstrated that children react to money in similar ways to adults. The priming of young children with money related concepts or images has negatively affected their social behavior and social preferences, leading them to make more individualist and less pro-social choices and be less willing to help others. The aim of this research was to investigate the positive influence of money activation on children’s behavior. The participants were 6–8 year old children who do not yet fully understand the instrumental function of money due to their young age. Two experimental studies were performed, the first of which analyzed the effect of perseverance and performance on a challenging task and the second investigated preferences with respect to delaying gratification. Sixty-one children aged 6 took part in the first study and forty-six scout camp participants 6–8 years of age were involved in the second experiment. The results support the hypotheses concerning the effects of money activation stating that (1) money activation influences children’s perseverance and effectiveness in difficult individual tasks, and that (2) it increases children’s preferences for delayed gratification. These results suggest that money has a symbolic power which may exert both positive and negative effects on children’s behavior. Since children between the ages of 6 and 8 do not understand the instrumental function of money fully, certain symbolic meanings of money may have been responsible for the money priming effects. The findings suggest that the symbolic function of money is more primal than its instrumental function and that it probably develops at an earlier stage in life.
Highlights
One of the models of the psychological consequences of thinking about money that was developed recently (Vohs et al, 2006, 2008) assumes that money, being the most common form of reward, directs our attention toward personal contribution and profits, and leads to self-sufficient motivation, which is reflected in greater efforts to achieve personal goals and an increased preference for isolating oneself from others
Effects of Money Activation on Perseverance shown that subliminal priming with money-related concepts or images makes respondents: (1) less willing to help others or to donate money; (2) less likely to seek help with difficult or insoluble problems; (3) exert more effort to attaining personal goals; (4) prefer working and playing alone; and (5) establish a greater physical distance between themselves and other people
Experiments that have been conducted on the positive effects that money priming has on performance have demonstrated that people put more effort into goal-oriented tasks (Vohs, 2015) after money activation and exhibit higher task persistence by spending more time on a difficult task than people primed with neutral concepts (Mogilner, 2010; Vohs, 2015)
Summary
One of the models of the psychological consequences of thinking about money that was developed recently (Vohs et al, 2006, 2008) assumes that money, being the most common form of reward, directs our attention toward personal contribution and profits, and leads to self-sufficient motivation, which is reflected in greater efforts to achieve personal goals and an increased preference for isolating oneself from others. Experiments that have been conducted on the positive effects that money priming has on performance have demonstrated that people put more effort into goal-oriented tasks (Vohs, 2015) after money activation and exhibit higher task persistence by spending more time on a difficult task than people primed with neutral concepts (Mogilner, 2010; Vohs, 2015). Greater self-efficacy and task persistence are probably the reasons behind the higher performance in different tasks after money concept activation, which was confirmed in various experiments (Boucher and Kofos, 2012; Vohs, 2015). The very act of thinking about money makes people feel efficacious, capable and confident and, empowered to persevere (Boucher and Kofos, 2012)
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