Study: We really do like larger bills

January 31, 2006 Dollar bill

A University of Iowa money study explores our preference for big bills over small ones -- and explains our marked reluctance to part with a larger bill.

"The denomination in which money is held influences consumer spending," write researchers Himanshu Mishra, Arul Mishra and Dhananjay Nayakankuppam. They term the propensity to hold a single bill in higher regard "a bias for the whole."

This single value also gives large bills something the authors call "processing fluency": "A single bill possesses Gestalt features of cohesion and economy that multiple bills lack," the authors contend. "It appears that money is not just regarded as a medium of exchange, but as an object of evaluation in its own right."

The study will appear in the March issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International


print this article email this article download pdf blog this article bookmark this article     Stumble it Digg this share on Facebook retweet share on Reddit add to delicious
Rate this story - 3.9 /5 (19 votes)


January 31, 2006 all stories

Comments: 0

3.9 /5 (19 votes)
  • Stumble this up

  • Digg this

  • share this

  • hide
  • Related Stories

  • Microsoft's Rx for health care
    created Oct 08, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0
  • Obama pitches health care plan in front of doctors
    created Oct 05, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0
  • Review: 10 ways to save on calling costs
    created Sep 30, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0
  • Young People Doing Fine When It Comes To Saving Money
    created Sep 22, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0
  • New study: Up to 90 percent of US paper money contains traces of cocaine
    created Aug 17, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0


Other News

5-day delivery no sure cure for postal woes, economist says

Other Sciences / Economics

created 23 minutes ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Scaling back mail delivery from six days a week to five may be the best bet to stem mounting U.S. Postal Service losses, but could still be a gamble, says a University of Illinois economist who has studied the agency's persistent ...


As robots become more common, Stanford experts consider the legal challenges

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created 1hour ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- They already detect and defuse bombs, control traffic patterns and do some basic household chores. And scientists predict that pretty soon, robots will be using artificial intelligence to play a larger role ...


The cause behind the characteristic shape of a long leaf revealed

The cause behind the characteristic shape of a long leaf revealed

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created 4 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Applied mathematicians dissected the morphology of the plantain lily (Hosta lancifolia), a characteristic long leaf with a saddle-like arc midsection and closely packed ripples along the edges. The simple ...


Climate change could boost incidence of civil war in Africa

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created 4 hours ago | popularity 1 / 5 (4) | comments 4

Climate change could increase the likelihood of civil war in sub-Saharan Africa by over 50 percent within the next two decades, according to a new study led by a team of researchers at University of California, Berkeley, ...


Consumers choose locally grown and environmentally friendly apples

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created 4 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

When asked to compare apples to apples, consumers said they would pay more for locally grown apples than genetically modified (GMO) apples. But in a second questionnaire consumers preferred GMO apples - that is, when they ...