Premium
Experimental manipulations to reduce the negative effects of money
Author(s) -
Yam Kai Chi
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/jasp.12075
Subject(s) - incentive , dual (grammatical number) , psychology , social psychology , perception , economics , productivity , microeconomics , art , literature , macroeconomics , neuroscience
People generally consider money a necessary evil because it invokes dual effects. On one hand, it increases people's productivity and performance, but it also decreases people's sensitivity to others. I conducted three experimental studies with an attempt to reduce the negative effects of money. Results indicated that when money was framed as a social incentive, its negative effect was attenuated and people exerted more helping behavior in both hypothetical and real‐life scenarios. However, when a social incentive was framed in monetary terms, the negative effect of money prevailed in hypothetical but not in real‐life scenarios. Results suggested that money itself is not the root of evil or good, but rather its effects are influenced by our perceptions of its role.