According to a recent report in Science, the mere thought of money changes people and not necessarily for the better.
Psychologist Kathleen Vohs, now at the University of Minnesota, has been studying the influence of money on behavior with surprising results. Even the most seemingly benign exposure to images of money, such as seeing a poster depicting different types of currency in the research area resulted in increased "self sufficiency" as well as selfishness in the subjects.
People who had received cues to think of money were significantly more reluctant than their non-money exposed counterparts to ask for assistance solving difficult problems. They were far less eager to offer help as well, spending only half as much time, on average, assisting others around them who were in need of assistance. Consistently, money-primed subjects chose individualistic activities, apparently not wishing to depend on nor be depended upon by others.
If merely thinking about money primes people to behave in more narrowly self-interested ways, social scientists contend that financial success as a goal may have an eroding effect on societies standing in direct opposition to community-focused goals.
The scientific study of psychology of money is a relatively recent phenomena but with results such as these, expect to see more in the future. The article concludes, "Being overly preoccupied with money, especially for the ‘wrong’ reasons, is characteristic of those who score highly on a measure of materialism, and such people tend to be less happy than others. Given the centrality of money in modern societies, gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the causes and effects of behavior toward money is clearly not just a scientific project; it also has a contribution to make toward understanding, and perhaps enhancing, human happiness and well-being.”
And from what I understand, it can't buy you love, either.
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