Money as Social Anesthetic
Image via CrunchBase
Money may not be able to buy you happiness (may not, I said, not cannot). But it can buy you relief from social and even physical pain:
Popularity matters to social animals like humans, who rely on each other for our wants and needs. Our dependence on each other makes it important to get along with our peers. But in many societies, money can bypass that need, allowing us to get our own way whether we’re liked or not.
In experiments where they were excluded from a computer-simulated game of catch and where they had to stick their hands in hot water, participants who had counted a stack of bills before hand felt less social and physical pain.
In short: Good news for rich nerds!
Another take: Great news for fender-bender BS chronic-pain lawsuit filers!
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That ranks with some of the weirdest experiments I’ve ever heard of. Play catch, count money, plunge hands into hot water. Another perfectly normal day at the psych lab.
Ryan,
Popularity did serve a purpose when I was young. I enjoyed being popular in school and for many years as a bartender. But, I think as a bartender I learned too much about people and realized that life wasn’t quite what I thought it was. The only thing I was dependent on others for was sex and bartending kept me well equipped.
My Lotto fantasy has always been to get a brand new penthouse, painted flat black (ceiling and walls), starkly furnished with just what I need and I would probably be even more of a recluse than I already am. I am close with most of my family, but I won’t travel and keep only a couple friends at a time. Using money to create the illusion of popularity to get one’s own way seems like an empty endeavor. Deep down inside, you would know.
The experiment is interesting…you are excluded from a game, get to count some money and put your hand in hot water. Was it a paid study? That would certainly explain less pain for some if they knew they got to keep the money they just counted.
But, it is pretty funny no matter how you look at it as we are conditioned to seek popularity (and money). I prefer solitude. I’d take that over popularity and money any day of the week.
Sandy
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