We like to think that we control money because it seems easy to control, but in reality it is money that controls us . We only have to look around to see how the world works. Money is able to make us rethink our own principles and everyone is vulnerable to the influence of corruption. I’m sure you’re thinking that this is not true… Okay, everybody but you!

The Psychology Behind Money and Greed

But I am not the one who says this, but a whole set of studies halfway between psychology, economics and sociology, which investigate how we relate to money and what the psychological consequences of possessing large monetary sums are.

In this sense, a team of scientists from the Universitat Jaume I of Castellón concluded, after a study, that rejecting a bribe produces more stress than accepting it . Do you still find it strange that many politicians and businessmen are corrupt? Seen like this, money is like a drug and, as such, it is addictive.

People change their behavior because of money

People change their behavior if there’s money involved. A study from the University of North Carolina found that if a group of subjects were offered money, they were able to increase their scores on a verbal test .

Not only that, but money is capable of making us behave like “fools”: for example, mortgaging us for life or making us buy things that are not useful. But no matter how much some people insist on believing that money brings happiness, there are several investigations that show that once we reach our basic needs, earning more money does not make us happier .

Money also changes our way of thinking

Stephen Lea, a professor of psychology at Exeter University, thought the theory that money is only a tool to get what we want is wrong. He asked himself some questions: How is it that money is often the end in itself and not the process of achieving it? Why is money capable of blinding us even against our own well-being? Why are we human beings capable of having a lot of money in excess and not sharing it out?

It seems, therefore, that we are not satisfied with just having the money necessary to be able to subsist , but that with the money, as with the drug, we must continue to increase the dose. In fact, different investigations have found that the simple thought of making money activates the same brain regions as these substances.

On the other hand, research from the University of Minnesota showed that money changes our way of thinking . According to the results of their study, just by looking at a picture that shows money, our brain acts as if we were going to win a prize. That is, our brain areas related to mathematical memory and attention are activated in a considerable way.

Money can make you a worse person

Surely the vast majority of people think that if one day we win the lottery the problems will be over and we will be the happiest people in the world, even more so when the economy is as it is. But in a report carried out by Manfred Kents de Vries, professor of leadership at the ISEAD Business School, he states that having a full wallet doesn’t make you any happier .

In addition, other studies, contrary to those that claim that money increases self-confidence, seem to confirm that it makes people less charitable, more unpleasant and harms social relationships.

Now, if you have money or if you ever get rich, you better spend the money on others. A study conducted by Michael Norton, professor at Harvard Business School, showed that when money is spent on other people, it makes you happier than when you spend it on yourself .