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Affective perception of Euro banknotes: cognitive factors and interindividual differences

Psychological Research volume 85, pages 121–132 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Money can be a tool to achieve a wide range of goals in everyday life. Different studies have reported that both the mere exposure to money and its use as a reward can determine cognitive and social effects. Nevertheless, little is known about the basic affective perception of Euro banknotes. Thus, in the present study we aim to assess differences in valence, arousal and familiarity evaluations of banknote pictures (from 5 to 500€) by taking into account gender, socioeconomic status and Love of Money (LoM) score, which measures the subjective attitude toward money, in a sample of participants. We found that valence and arousal increase with the nominal value of the banknotes, and that the relationship between these affective scores and the nominal value appears to be logarithmic (Weber’s law) rather than linear. High value banknotes were evaluated as pleasant, highly arousing, and less familiar. Low value banknotes instead were evaluated as more familiar, less arousing and neutrally valenced. Finally, we found that valence and arousal evaluations are mainly influenced by the LoM score of our participants. Instead, gender and economic condition influenced only arousal scores. These findings suggest the importance of deepening the study of these variables to shed light on money-related biases and abnormal economic behaviors.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Stefano Anzani for his useful suggestions in the final phase of the manuscript preparation.

Funding

This study did not receive any funding.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological, Health and Territorial Sciences, University “G. d’ Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy

    Valerio Manippa, Felice Giuliani, Alfredo Brancucci & Luca Tommasi

  2. Laboratory of Behavioral Economics, Human Centered Design and Healthcare, University “G. d’ Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy

    Felice Giuliani, Riccardo Palumbo & Davide Pietroni

  3. Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Sciences, University “G. d’ Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy

    Riccardo Palumbo & Davide Pietroni

Authors
  1. Valerio Manippa
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  2. Felice Giuliani
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  3. Alfredo Brancucci
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  4. Luca Tommasi
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  5. Riccardo Palumbo
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  6. Davide Pietroni
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Contributions

VM and FG conceived and designed the experiment, collected, analyzed and interpreted the data and wrote the manuscript. AB, LC, RP and DP provided critical revisions and contributed to the final version of the manuscript. All authors approved the final version for submission and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

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Correspondence to Valerio Manippa.

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Manippa, V., Giuliani, F., Brancucci, A. et al. Affective perception of Euro banknotes: cognitive factors and interindividual differences. Psychological Research 85, 121–132 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01240-z

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