Value and Size Perception

Saugstad, Per; Schioldborg, Per

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9450.1966.tb01344.x

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Bruner and Goodman (1947) found that children tend to overestimate the sizes of coins relative to other, physically similar, stimuli. This report caused considerable controversy, and a series of experiments by other authors clarified the result, without however shaking the basic claim that there is something special about money objects at the psychological level (Saugstad & Schioldborg 1966). More recent research has supported that claim by looking at how the perception of money is changed by historical changes in the money system and the value of money.…”

Section: The Empirical Psychology Of Moneymentioning

confidence: 96%

Money as tool, money as drug: The biological psychology of a strong incentive

2006

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Why are people interested in money? Specifically, what could be the biological basis for the extraordinary incentive and reinforcing power of money, which seems to be unique to the human species? We identify two ways in which a commodity which is of no biological significance in itself can become a strong motivator. The first is if it is used as a tool, and by a metaphorical extension this is often applied to money: it is used instrumentally, in order to obtain biologically relevant incentives. Second, substances can be strong motivators because they imitate the action of natural incentives but do not produce the fitness gains for which those incentives are instinctively sought. The classic examples of this process are psychoactive drugs, but we argue that the drug concept can also be extended metaphorically to provide an account of money motivation. From a review of theoretical and empirical literature about money, we conclude that (i) there are a number of phenomena that cannot be accounted for by a pure Tool Theory of money motivation; (ii) supplementing Tool Theory with a Drug Theory enables the anomalous phenomena to be explained; and (iii) the human instincts that, according to a Drug Theory, money parasitizes include trading (derived from reciprocal altruism) and object play.Keywords: economic behaviour; evolutionary psychology; giving; incentive; money; motivation; play; reciprocal altruism Why are people interested in money?This target article seeks to provide a biological explanation for one of the strongest motivations of humans living in modern societies: the desire to obtain money. We start by establishing some definitions. What do we mean by a "biological explanation"? What do we mean by money? And what do we mean by the motivation to obtain money? Biological explanationBy the 1950s, the "grand theories of everything" that had emerged in early twentieth-century psychology seemed to have become extinct. But with the publication of Richard Dawkins ' (1976) book The Selfish Gene, the strongly Darwinian approach that has been called, with slightly varying nuances, sociobiology or evolutionary psychology emerged as a new and potentially universal way of addressing the Why questions about human behaviour. If people do something, the sociobiological argument runs, it must be because (a) doing it confers a selective advantage; or (b) although doing it does not now confer a selective advantage, it did at some period in our evolutionary past, most likely in the early history of Homo sapiens, within the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation; or (c) the tendency to do it is a by-product of some other tendency, which does or did confer such an advantage.STEPHEN LEA is Professor of Psychology at the University of Exeter, U.K. He is the author of more than 150 publications spanning the areas of animal cognition, behavioural ecology, economic behaviour, and human visual perception. As well as being one of the founders of modern economic psychology in Europe, he is well known for his research on pattern...

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Section: The Empirical Psychology Of Moneymentioning

confidence: 96%

Money as tool, money as drug: The biological psychology of a strong incentive

2006

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“…The experimental literature on bodily needs and perception-cognition has previously been reviewed by Allport (1955), Jenkin (1957), and Solley and Murphy (1960). In another place, Saugstad and Schioldborg (1966) have reviewed the literature on the related topic of value and perception. Sanford (1937) In a study of an exploratory nature, Sanford (1936) had used two sets of pictures and two lists of words.…”

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confidence: 99%

Effect of food deprivation on perception-cognition.

Saugstad

1966

Psychological Bulletin

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Nine experiments designed to investigate the effect of food deprivation on perceptual-cognitive processes are examined in detail. An effect is revealed in only some of these experiments. The deviating results are explained by assuming that motivational state will not affect perceptual-cognitive processes unless the material presented is meaningful in relation to the motivational state. An examination of the operational definitions given of the processes studied indicate that the processes may be more meaningfully termed imaginary than perceptual. An examination of the operational definition of the motivational state of hunger revealed that in most of the experiments the important condition may not be hours of food deprivation, but the expectancy of the Ss as to when they may next receive food.

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“…In accordance with Kahneman (2002) and Stanovich and West (2002), this study affirms that inadequate data elaboration or improper information processes may lead individuals to erroneous or incomplete evaluations. Indeed, a person's distorted perceptions about money could derive from an improper choice of anchor, i.e., the ineffective adjustment (Khan & Craig-Lees, 2009;Saugstad & Schioldborg, 1966). This quantity distortion effect seems connected to a generalized tendency to overestimate or underestimate physical monetary quantities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consumers often experience perceptual biases and distorted evaluations when dealing with money. Such phenomena occur not only when they compare price information (Coulter & Coulter, 2010; Monroe, 1973; Raghubir, 2006) or pay in different modes (Khan, Belk, & Craig-Lees, 2015; Mishra, Mishra, & Nayakankuppam, 2006; Prelec & Simester, 2001; Raghubir & Srivastava, 2008) but also when evaluating the physical aspects of money (Bruner & Goodman, 1947; Brysbaert & d’Ydewalle, 1989; Burgoyne, Routh, & Ellis, 1999; Furnham, 1983; Lea, 1981; Leiser & Izak, 1987; Peetz & Soliman, 2016; Raghubir & Srivastava, 2002; Saugstad & Schioldborg, 1966; Wertenbroch, Soman, & Chattopadhyay, 2007). Such a misleading effect stems from an improper choice of anchors, i.e., an ineffective level of adjustment (Khan & Craig-Lees, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantity Distortion Effect in Consumers’ Perception of Different Volumes and Weights of Money

et al. 2016

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Consumers tend to misunderstand the physical value of cash money by adopting improper anchors for their judgments (e.g., banknote size and shape, currency denominations, etc.). In a pilot study carried out on a sample of 242 participants (n = 116 men; M age = 29.6 year, SD = 10.8), a quantity distortion effect was demonstrated by evaluating consumers' misperceptions of different monetary quantities, either in terms of volume or weight, using banknotes of the same denomination (€50). A threshold value was found, for both volume (€876,324) and weight (€371,779), above (below) which consumers tend to overrate (underrate) monetary amounts. The theoretical and operative implications are discussed.

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Value and Size Perception

Cited by 13 publications

References 30 publications

Money as tool, money as drug: The biological psychology of a strong incentive

Money as tool, money as drug: The biological psychology of a strong incentive

Effect of food deprivation on perception-cognition.

Quantity Distortion Effect in Consumers’ Perception of Different Volumes and Weights of Money

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