Don’t Make Money Scary

A group of Polish researchers came to similar conclusions about why people should speak frankly about money. Children, the researchers say, are quick to pick up on the symbolic value of money—all of the emotions it can stir and the associations it carries—even if they don’t understand how cash works. If parents don’t speak frankly about money, the researchers say, those associations pile up and lead children to act selfishly in the short term, and in the long term leave them with illusions about the power of money.

In their study, published in the Journal of Economic Psychology, the academics found that children who were focusing on money acted much more selfishly toward their peers. The researchers randomly divided 120 children aged between five and six into four groups. One group counted coins, one counted notes and the others various other objects. After doing so, the children were asked to help pick purple crayons out of a box of mixed-color crayons. The children who counted coins and notes were less willing to help with the task than those that had counted paper and buttons.

Over time, children who don’t get straight answers tend to think about money in purely symbolic terms, giving it more emotional weight than it deserves, he says. They may end up looking at the world through costs and benefits, rather than social rules of reciprocity. This can limit the ability to develop close relationships that would help people cope with problems in a way money cannot.

Further, if children continuously come to associate money with power, they might begin to see it as a solution to many problems, he says. They might come to see it as a way to cope with fears, attract new friends or increase their well being.