A Fresh Look on Money Priming

Abstract

Two studies demonstrated that subjective socioeconomic status moderates the effects of reminders of money on the endorsement of the socioeconomic system. Whether reminders of money increased or decreased system justification (Study 1) and the belief in a just world (Study 2) depended on participants’ subjectively experienced standing in the social hierarchy. These findings were backed up by a small-scale meta-analysis across our entire data (N = 365). Hence, we also included a third study into the meta-analysis, in which the manipulation check indicated that the mental activation of money was comparably weak. This research offers new insights into the psychological mechanisms of money primes and reveals that interindividual differences, such as whether one feels privileged or not, can moderate the effects of money primes.

Does money change political views? – An investigation of money priming and the preference for right-wing politics

“…The cumulative analysis on the direct measures seems to provide some tentative support for the interaction hypothesis. In contrast to the main effect hypothesis and in line with previous research (Schuler & Wänke, 2016), the cumulative evidence revealed a marginally significant effect for the moderation hypothesis. However, the effect did not reach conventional levels of significance (p < .05) and should be interpreted with caution.…”

“…Empirical support for the theoretical claim that money priming makes people more focused on themselves and their personal benefits has been shown across different countries and cultural backgrounds (Vohs, 2015). Furthermore, Schuler and Wänke (2016) tested U.S.…”

“…We considered the hypothesis that money primes change people's political orientation, which was suggested by several publications (e.g., Caruso et al, 2013;Vohs, 2015;Zedelius et al, 2013) and subsequently questioned by other researchers (Klein et al, 2014;Rohrer et al, 2015;Schuler & Wänke, 2016;Vadillo, Hardwicke, & Shanks, 2016). We adopted a multistudy approach and across seven studies, we found little evidence for a main effect of money priming on political orientation among German participants.…”

“…Perhaps it is time to thoroughly search for moderators and limitations of money priming, in order to further advance the field and theory. Interestingly, it appears that a person's standing in the social hierarchy, which is increasingly considered in social psychology in general (Brown-Iannuzzi et al, 2015;Gruenewald, Kemeny, & Aziz, 2006;Keefer et al, 2015;, also plays a role for money priming (see also Schuler & Wänke, 2016) and might partly explain why money priming effects are generally not so robust. Hence, it seems worthwhile to keep this meaningful variable in mind when conducting future research with more representative or diversified samples in social and political psychology.…”

“…Secondly and pertinent to the current research, Schuler and Wänke (2016) reasoned that if reminders of money stimulate people to focus more on their self and their personal benefits (e.g., Gino & Pierce, 2009;Reutner & Wänke, 2013;Vohs, 2015;Vohs et al, 2006), they should also favor a system which serves these personal needs as compared to a system which serves the necessities of others. Accordingly, the authors showed that when being primed with money, U.S. participants who felt socioeconomically privileged showed more support of the U.S.-American societal system that favors members from the upper levels of society, compared to participants who felt socioeconomically disadvantaged.…”