Study shows money’s soothing power

Money may not buy love, but simply counting it can take the sting out of social rejection or reduce physical pain, U.S. and Chinese researchers say.

Kathleen Vohs of the University of Minnesota, Xinyue Zhou of Sun Yat-Sen University in China and Roy Baumeister of Florida State University analyzed six studies that tested relationships between reminders of money, social exclusion and physical pain for Faculty of 1,000 Medicine.

The analysis, published in the the journal Psychological Science, determined that interpersonal rejection and physical pain caused desire for money to increase.

Money can possibly substitute for social acceptance in conferring the ability to obtain benefits from the social system, the researchers said in a statement.

Moreover, past work has suggested that responses to physical pain and social distress share common underlying mechanisms.

In one study, the study participants either counted money or counted paper. Those study participants who handled money felt less pain after putting their hands in hot water than those who handled paper, the researchers said.

Being reminded of having spent money — paying bills — intensified both social distress and physical pain, the researchers said in their findings.