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Conscious and Unconscious Influences of Money: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

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The Psychological Science of Money

Abstract

Although people often deliberate about the monetary consequences of their actions, money may also influence us in more subtle ways. The current chapter explores the ways in which cues related to money may influence people’s behavior without their awareness. First, cues related to money may convey information about what is at stake in a certain task. In that case subliminal priming of rewards may increase the effort invested in the task. Second, priming the concept of money may—apart from the intensity of their behavior—also influence the direction of their behavior. That is, individual differences in associations with money may cause people to react to money cues in different ways. These two possibilities are discussed and reviewed against the background of the literature on nonconscious goal pursuit. Overall, the discussed empirical work shows that money cues can motivate and change behavior without much conscious awareness.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Switch cost has been attributed to time consumed by executive control processes necessary for a change of task (Rogers & Monsell, 1995) and may involve a number of subcomponents, such as retrieving the rules and procedures required for task completion into working memory, initializing stimulus–response mappings, and suppressing activation of the previously active task set. The switch cost is defined as the difference in performance between switch trials and repeat trials within the same block (Rogers & Monsell, 1995).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INSERM U1114, Department of Psychiatry, University of Strasbourg, CHR Hôpital Civil, 1 place de l’Hôpital, 67091, Strasbourg Cedex, France

    Rémi L. Capa

  2. Department of Cognitive, Perceptual and Brain Sciences, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK

    Ruud Custers

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  1. Rémi L. Capa
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Correspondence to Rémi L. Capa .

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  1. Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen , The Netherlands, Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Erik Bijleveld

  2. Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Henk Aarts

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Capa, R.L., Custers, R. (2014). Conscious and Unconscious Influences of Money: Two Sides of the Same Coin?. In: Bijleveld, E., Aarts, H. (eds) The Psychological Science of Money. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0959-9_4

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