Does money make you mean? |
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"So much of the literature says that there is
an inverse relationship between subjective well-being and materialism,"
she says. "But it only holds when the motives have to do with
the desire to hoard, amass and use money for power and control,
keep up with the Joneses, rather than as a vehicle for generosity.
"It does not hold when you want money in order
to educate your children or save for the future."
Benson notes with interest that the study's findings
were remarkably consistent, regardless of geography or the wealth
of the participants.
"The fact that it is consistent over nine studies might tell us that there aren't that many of us around who want money for the right reasons," she says.
Money changes everything
Vohs says the study's findings may have broad implications from the boardroom to the schoolroom. If just the thought of money tends to alter behavior, an increased awareness of that might one day lead to more productive relationships at work and at home.
"I think there is a power here to be used for good as well," she says. "Depending on the results you are seeking to bring about, you can either underplay or enhance the role of money."
Take "Dilbert," which portrays the prototypical
dysfunctional corporate cube farm where the well-intentioned efforts
of the engineers are continually undercut by the bottom-line reasoning
of a clueless management.
"If, as a manager, your goal is to get work groups
to be very, very cooperative, you want to really minimize the presence
of money and the importance of money, because if cooperation is
the key, that's going to be problematic," says Vohs.
"On the other hand, you can use money to orchestrate certain situations. For instance, if you had a task where you really wanted people to just go at it full force and independently because maybe teamwork would slow the project down, then you may want to motivate them with money."
On the home front, where money battles rank as the
No. 1 cause of divorce, an ounce of awareness of the potency of
the subject may eliminate the need for a ton of counseling.
"In interpersonal relationships, we know that it's very difficult to talk about money," she says. "Couples, and even parents and children, need to approach the topic with very open eyes and realize that disagreements that arise might just be because of the money and not because of what the other person is saying."
When it comes to raising kids, motivating with cash
may defeat your purpose.
"You're working at cross purposes if you're going to incentivize with money. I think it's important to learn just to learn. On the other hand, I think that things like making the bed or helping set the table could be incentivized with a weekly allowance and I think that would be just fine because those are daily tasks that they're not going to find much love in anyway. You can use money as an incentive to help kids be more self-reliant, but downplay the role of money when you're teaching values."
Benson agrees: "These are important findings that parents should know about. These studies show parents that if they're throwing money and money talk around too much, this is the kind of long-term effect it could have."
Jay MacDonald is a contributing editor based in Texas.
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