The Pain of Paying: The Psychology of Money

Have a question for Dan? You can submit a question in advance of his live session on February 13 to [e-mail]. During that live session, you may tweet questions for Professor Ariely using the #fuquaalumni hashtag.
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The Pain of Paying: The Psychology of Money
Dan Ariely, James B. Duke Professor of Psychology & Behavioral Economics
During this session, you will learn:
- why paying with cash for a nice dinner feels worse than paying with a credit card
- how AOL underestimated internet usage with a change in pricing structure
- how to get maximum enjoyment from your vacation

[@w580iowner]

This really strikes a chord. Dan is too good! The concepts are explained in such an entertaining and simple way! Though I would like to know how the 'irrational' behavior in case of AOL could be captured in making an accurate prediction.

[@user-jh7ni3jd8d]

this guy is asking the right questions

[@hadleybarton1940]

i agree zakariya mohamud

[@kumaranb4697]

“This Guy” :o ..... Professor Dan Ariely is the God of Behavioural Economics. He understands and dissects human behaviour in very high levels of intelligence.

[@sallyfahmy7101]

Inspiring Video , specially the part of the perfect gift !

[@jaywhite9028]

Excellent video! you got my thumbs up!

[@filiplencucha9177]

I agree with psychological phenomenon Dan is explaining. This is definitely how people act in reality. I could see it on myself, people around me... It is definitely useful for marketing departments to adjust their policies. As Dan is elaborating people might apply different paying types for different needs based on whether they want to enjoy or feel the costs. Here I also see another way; let’s call it rational, of approaching this phenomenon from one's perspective. Transactions with money are only intermediary actions in between. Bottom line is elsewhere - on one hand there is need, on the other there is satisfaction. Money is universal metric for setting value. What I consider as rational is to abstract from different types of paying generating different feelings. If it is 10$, it does not matter whether it is in cash or by card, upfront or at the moment of particular event (I do not mean to deny time value of money here) , just face it rationally. That is what I find rational; I personally go for and in what I train myself.

[@ashleyashleym2969]

For me the card would actually feel worse, because the cash doesn't show up in my account so I don't count cash in the total amount of money I have, so for me cash makes it feel free whereas with my card I can actually see it coming out of my account and the money I htought I had I no longer have and for some reason that gets me emotionally.

[@acousticmusiccovers]

I guess, your case could be somehow related to self-control issues. A phenomenom what Ariely and Silva (2002) considered in their paper: "payment method design" ;-)

[@SebastianKoren]

I really great talk. Shared it on: Storyteller's Shopping Basket

[@BlaineWarkentine]

great discussion

[@Nothing-mq2on]

thanks Dan and DUKE

[@takeiteasy2305]

I actually agree with him I always pay my parking tickets by my bank card. And it doesn’t hurt that bad 😂

[@petersv]

This is interesting, i always hate to pay with my debit card instead of cash because i have a mobilebank to see my expenses instant

[@ShakespeareCafe]

An Atlantic article on Free Shipping isn't Free brought me here. If we had to pay rent each month in cash that would be a major kick in the gut

[@MissVelvetElle]

Thank you~Love Dan Ariely

[@2303mitt]

Some times I don’t fix my car little problems for that reason I always feels the pain of paying money to fix it , the problem is the amount of problems start to become a lot 😥😥😥

[@nksrawatnksrawat]

great lectures

[@AsifShaib]

I was fascinated by his book, and decided to make a review in my own language. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rpnMoo2me7pmncU

[@joshc4589]

Regarding the cruise ship case, wouldn’t one argue that regardless you pay after or before, you would still be stuffing the buffet?

[@mentorman6285]

Brilliant man

[@alistairlangford-wilson26]

Curious about the 'clock' that Dan describes in the AOL example. Was this an actual clock that AOL users could see ticking over, or was it just their own consciousness that they were paying for a certain amount of time? If it was a visible clock (or meter), does that suggest AOL would have been better off keeping time metered but removing the clock (or modifying it, so that instead of constantly reminding the customer of how much they had used up, it might only 'warn' the customer that time is expiring once they get close to the 20 hours). Financially, for AOL, the best outcome was not to stop metering time, but to somehow get people to pay for more time!

[@zonk3835]

Alistair Langford-Wilson yes

[@indrapratama5999]

i think the pain of paying related how ppl earn that money,,,

[@2303mitt]

True , if your in a physically demanding job the pain of paying will be greater and the same thing goes with a mentally draining burning jobs but if you earn your money Through assets like renting a property that you own and the only thing you have to just collect the money, in this case the pain of paying will be a lot less

[@SuperTopnach]

Why is the receipt on the plate weird.

[@tafthardington3187]

Love the sense of humor

[@karamjallaw]

In the pizza experiment , I would count in advance how many bites it will take me to eat the pizza slice as usual and maybe put an extra 20% to it, put the money aside and begin indulging my pizza. But that will not keep me from thinking about the way I eat it ! The whole process here is not natural as it’s should be , because I’m still telling my brain deliberately how the bite size should be. It’s like asking someone NOT to think about pink elephant, and the only thing they can’t help thinking about is a pink elephant ! All that action with the pizza experiment is not the pain of paying itself but the FEAR of pain of paying. The participants wants to minimize the pain ax much as possible and having a good deal as possible, resulting in less joy eating the pizza! Regardless of the payment method ,will we feel the pain of paying if we are making a ridiculously good deal? Define a good deal?! How long does that pain lasts ? Will we feel relieved if the waitress comes back and say to us “ you are the lucky customer number 100 this month, and for that we give you back 20% of what you paid ” ? Is it better if we get a goodie bag for the same value instead ?

[@goldilockszone4389]

i can buy and iphone or buy several other phone and keep changing them

[@hessaalrabah4577]

👏🏻👏🏻

[@chuet443]

This video is painful to watch man... he's describing my behaviour too precisely.

[@ObeySilence]

Lol the credit card feel a way worse than the money. One also has to see the that this here is probably a american context. In Germany for example people hate paying with credit card. Therefore in a lot of places you can not pay with credit card.

[@mr.anonymous8399]

Is that because of a cultural difference? I'm just curious.

[@audreylollis6473]

Do you think a way to decrease the pain of paying is by changing your thinking about the money? Isn't just the pain of paying a matter of perception?

[@acousticmusiccovers]

For sure...otherwise it would not cause you pain. As for as I have heard marketing analysts were able to measure real pain reflexes in the brain related to payings. Guessing that this is a "learned" pain, that must be some sort of acquired socialization.

[@Oxyleya]

Audrey Lollis I don't think thats possible if you don't have above normal anxiety levels (which could ofc be treated). Naturally the upper class doesn't have to worry about money, but for people who have to contemplate which milk to get in the supermaret having enough money is kind of essential to their existence. You could of course also repress the shit out of financial thoughts, yes. But as he said, sometimes normal people should feel pain when paying. And btw everything is a matter of perceptions since we have no other way of receiving information from the environment :)

[@Oxyleya]

Audrey Lollis Think about how a low inhibtion when spending might lead to overspending and would therefor be maladaptive

[@jchristian8413]

It's also matter of survival. All human action is economic calculation. Ludwig von mises

[@msmusicmaestro61]

Reduce the pain of pain

[@fierrza1845]

Did anyone notice how half his face was shaved and the other wasn’t?

[@alexanderalcantara4910]

Only idiots that do not understand the nature of money feel pain of paying. By the way, if my wife buys me something that I didn't buy in the first place (hat example) I would feel the same pain. (I'm an idiot)

[@acousticmusiccovers]

Haha...sure, we are all idiots. The system and our own senses made us to "learn" to feel the pain of paying. Blame it on the system (always right LOL) and on our spectaciular brain.