Spend your days dreaming of winning the lottery? It's not time wasted.
New research from Bates College in the US suggests merely the 'thought' of money can act on our subconscious to evoke feelings of strength and efficacy.
According to the study, acts of self-control deplete an individual's sense of self (or ego). Essentially your self-control muscle becomes tired due to exertion, explains Psyblog.
In a statement, the study's authors say: "In this research, we demonstrate that activating the concept of money can buffer this ego depletion effect."
During two experiments, participants completed an initial task that depleted self-control resources (or not). They were then reminded of money or neutral concepts, and finally, completed a second task requiring self-control.
In both experiments, among depleted participants, those reminded of money performed better on the second self-control task than those reminded of neutral concepts, according to statement.
The research suggests that this buffering effect was due to money reducing both the subjective difficulty and effort required on the second self-control task.
