Your Brain Does Really Weird Stuff When It Thinks About Money 11-26

Money is an emotional topic, which partly explains why we all struggle to spend, save, and negotiate in an optimally rational way. But what’s really happening inside our brains when money comes up?

Well, a Harvard Business Review article by author Kabir Sehgal looked for answers to that question by breaking down some of the most important money-related fMRI studies of the past two decades. The answer, in short, is a whole lot.

Here are three of the key takeaways:

That stomach pain you feel when your money is at risk is real.

In one 2003 study, test subjects were asked to play a game known among behavioral economists as the “Ultimatum Game”: a pair of strangers are given a sum of money and asked to split it. One person acts as the “proposer,” the other as the “responder.” If the pair can’t agree on a split, no one walks away with cash. 

Money is an emotional topic, which partly explains why we all struggle to spend, save, and negotiate in an optimally rational way. But what’s really happening inside our brains when money comes up?

Well, a Harvard Business Review article by author Kabir Sehgal looked for answers to that question by breaking down some of the most important money-related fMRI studies of the past two decades. The answer, in short, is a whole lot.

Here are three of the key takeaways:

That stomach pain you feel when your money is at risk is real.

In one 2003 study, test subjects were asked to play a game known among behavioral economists as the “Ultimatum Game”: a pair of strangers are given a sum of money and asked to split it. One person acts as the “proposer,” the other as the “responder.” If the pair can’t agree on a split, no one walks away with cash.