Counting money - even if it’s not yours - makes you feel good subconsciously, according to a joint study by mainland and US psychologists.
Zhou Xinyue , associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and the primary author of the study carried out tests on his undergraduates. His findings will appear in the next issue of Psychological Science, an academic journal,
In one experiment, he divided the students in two groups: one was to count renminbi and the other blank paper. Each of the first group was given a stack of 80 100-yuan banknotes, enough to pay for a laptop computer or one year of college expenses.
Professor Zhou told the students it was just practice.
Next, he asked them to play a ball-tossing game on computers and said they were playing with one another. Students found, after 10 rounds, that no one passed them the ball anymore. The game was entirely controlled by computer. Researchers believed that it would generate a rejected feeling in some students.
Then the Southampton Self-Esteem and Sources of Self-Esteem Scale was used to measure their emotions. The result showed that the money-counting group had demonstrated “significantly reduced distress” when facing social adversity.
“These results fit the theory that money operates as a resource in such a way that counting money helps buffer the impact of exclusion by making people feel stronger,” the researchers wrote.
Counting money also helped mitigate physical pain, according to the study. The scientists asked participants to dip their fingers into hot water at 43 degrees Celsius for one minute.
A strong feeling of pain would occur without actual injury.
The money-counting group reported “significantly less pain”.
Researchers explained that the difference could be explained by the fact that the money-counting group felt stronger psychologically than the group that only counted paper.
But Liu Ying, a teller sitting behind the bulletproof window at a Bank of China branch in Beijing, said she did not particularly enjoy counting her customers’ money.
“I am a little sick of looking at Chairman Mao’s face [on the yuan notes] every day,” Ms. Liu said. “But I rarely feel tired counting US dollars. It is depreciating, indeed, but the green notes feel better in terms of quality and hygiene. So do Hong Kong dollar notes. I feel like travelling when I count them.”
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Count cash, feel good, study finds
Stephen Chen
19 May 2009
Counting money - even if it’s not yours - makes you feel good subconsciously, according to a joint study by mainland and US psychologists.
Zhou Xinyue , associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and the primary author of the study carried out tests on his undergraduates. His findings will appear in the next issue of Psychological Science, an academic journal,
In one experiment, he divided the students in two groups: one was to count renminbi and the other blank paper. Each of the first group was given a stack of 80 100-yuan banknotes, enough to pay for a laptop computer or one year of college expenses.
Professor Zhou told the students it was just practice.
Next, he asked them to play a ball-tossing game on computers and said they were playing with one another. Students found, after 10 rounds, that no one passed them the ball anymore. The game was entirely controlled by computer. Researchers believed that it would generate a rejected feeling in some students.
Then the Southampton Self-Esteem and Sources of Self-Esteem Scale was used to measure their emotions. The result showed that the money-counting group had demonstrated “significantly reduced distress” when facing social adversity.
“These results fit the theory that money operates as a resource in such a way that counting money helps buffer the impact of exclusion by making people feel stronger,” the researchers wrote.
Counting money also helped mitigate physical pain, according to the study. The scientists asked participants to dip their fingers into hot water at 43 degrees Celsius for one minute.
A strong feeling of pain would occur without actual injury.
The money-counting group reported “significantly less pain”.
Researchers explained that the difference could be explained by the fact that the money-counting group felt stronger psychologically than the group that only counted paper.
But Liu Ying, a teller sitting behind the bulletproof window at a Bank of China branch in Beijing, said she did not particularly enjoy counting her customers’ money.
“I am a little sick of looking at Chairman Mao’s face [on the yuan notes] every day,” Ms. Liu said. “But I rarely feel tired counting US dollars. It is depreciating, indeed, but the green notes feel better in terms of quality and hygiene. So do Hong Kong dollar notes. I feel like travelling when I count them.”
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