Money may have a bigger psychological impact on us than we realize. A new study in the journal Psychological Science finds that merely thinking about money can affect how we perceive physical pain and feelings of social rejection.

The researchers, Xinyue Zhou at Sun Yat-Sen University in southern China, Kathleen D. Vohs at the University of Minnesota and Roy F. Baumeister at Florida State University, conducted a series of six studies designed to test how thoughts or reminders of money affect feelings about social and physical experiences.

They found that feeling rejected stirred a greater desire for money and that thoughts about losing money made social rejection sting more. They also found that thinking about having money made physical pain feel less acute, thoughts of losing money made physical pain worse, and being in physical pain made people want money more.

The subjects were undergraduate students at Sun Yat-Sen University.

In one test, four women or four men were introduced to each other and allowed to get acquainted for five minutes before each was asked separately which person he or she would like to pair up with for a study. Later, each was told participation wasn’t possible because either everyone in the group wanted to work with that person or nobody did.

After that, each participant was instructed to draw a coin from memory, asked which of several pleasant things, like chocolate or sunshine, they would give up for $10 million, and solicited for donations to an orphanage. Those told that other group members rejected them drew larger coins, would trade more things for $10 million, and donated less money.

In another experiment, participants given lists of words that referred to physical pain chose larger coin sizes and were willing to give up more things that they valued in life for money.

Other experiments started with money and measured its effects on pain or rejection. Participants asked to count out 80 $100 bills reported less social distress after playing a computer game in which they experienced social rejection than participants assigned to count 80 worthless pieces of paper.

People who counted the real money also reported feeling less pain when their fingers were immersed in hot water for 30 seconds than those who counted the paper.

Other groups were asked either to list what they had spent money on in the past 30 days or list weather conditions during that time. Those who itemized their finances reported less social distress from the computer game and less pain from the hot water.

In these experiments, people’s mood or emotional state, as measured by psychological assessments, did not change based on whether they counted money or paper. But their perceptions of social or physical discomfort did.

The authors conclude that “even the mere idea of money can have benefits.”

Money, they write, “operates as a social resource that confers a broad, strong feeling of being able to cope with problems and satisfy one’s needs. Resources are valued more in times of threat and adversity than at other times, presumably because resources improve one’s overall ability to cope. Getting or having resources reduces pain and suffering; conversely, losing resources makes one more vulnerable, which intensifies suffering.”

So what are the potential practical implications of all this: Would people suffering from a painful disease or treatment find it easier to handle the pain if they were given $100 bills to count? Would socially excluded kids be less likely to feel rejection if their teacher had them participate in, say, a math lesson in which they counted money?

Those are “two good ways the manipulation could be used,” Professor Vohs said in an e-mail. “Other ideas are to have men count money before they go out hitting on women — because they are going to be rejected a lot. Or since money elicits feelings of strength, football players could count it before heading out onto the field (or maybe especially at halftime).”

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