Rich people cannot feel pain, don't care if they're liked

How about that...

I guess money really *does* buy happiness.

The armni with the rolls of fifty quid notes in the pockets. And step on it!

No-one tell Usama

Since Usama Bin Laden is a member of one of the richest families in the world, he probably doesn't care that the USA hate him so much and have ostracised him.

...if/when the US special forces catch him, torture isn't going to work very well either!

TItle

I think this makes sense. If I was a billionaire I wouldn't care what anyone else thought of me as I'd have enough money to take my mind off of things.

Paris because she's rich and she doesn't seem to care what we say about her.

@ How about that......

Can't remember who said it but I once heard that "those who say money can't buy you happiness just don't know where to shop"

Always made me smile :-)

Rich or happy?

A bit of simple logic will tell you that these people made to 'feel rich' will feel happier as a result, and the people made to feel poor will feel less happy.

A more obvious and scientific conclusion is that the happier you are, the less you are affected by pain.

well

I don't care if i'm poor...you can all f#ck off!.....ow i've just caught my finger in the space bar =[

Another Theory

So it has nothing to do with 90% of US notes have traces of cocaine?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/14/cocaine.traces.money/

Handling all that money might have rubbed some off and intot he body! ;)

Paris cause she knows what happens with those rolled up notes!

Money can't buy happiness

You can be miserable in total comfort with sycophantic members of your preferred sex pandering to your every whim.

Bluudy awful job, but someones got to do it.

Chopsticks Gene

Surely people who arent afraid of taking risks are statistically more likely to be sucessfull ?

Isn't this a standard pavlovian reward response?

99% of us have a pavlovian reward response to money: a dopamine release. Some of us have the same response to chocolate, some to other drugs. It's not even that surprising, given that the vast majority of us spend a lot of our time working toward a paycheck, if thats not Pavlovian then I don't know what is.

Dopamine is a natural painkiller. I don't see anything groundbreaking about this research, the most interesting conclusion you could draw is that most people are "addicted" to money.

@northern monkey

Also interesting- when you've spent your life paying taxes, NI, etc (plus private health and dental care, i.e. only thing taken from the gov't is road maintenance that doesn't happen) and suddenly find yourself jobless- but ineligible for Jobseekers- you suddenly realise "Hey, I just got ripped off."

If they'll cut my taxes, I'm voting Tory next election. Thanks for the heads up!

Oh, and if you want to watch the same experiment without paying for it check out Bang Goes The Theory on iPlayer.

@EdwardP

Granted that feeling happier increases naturally occurring painkillers in the body, but what about the people who were made to feel unhappy being more sensitive to pain?

It just goes to show that you should always break someone emotionally before embarking on pulling out their finger nails, preferably just after you've raided their wife and stolen their bank account.

nana nana nana nana

BAT-MAN!

International Date Line

Is it April first on the other side? I could never get the feel of how that thing works...

Rich people can't drive either

Have you noticed it's people in the biggest, most expensive cars that usually hog lane 3 regardless of how empty the other lanes are. Then when you try and get them to move over the bigger the car the less likely they are to move for you.

Yeah, disgruntled biker here. Usually I end up undertaking them, I hate not being able to see beyond them and I don't feel safe in that situation.

@SmallYellowFuzzyDuck

Have you also noticed that the people who back into parking spaces tend to have giant trucks and SUVs that they don't know how to drive?

I am willing

to take part in a study to see the effect if I swap my antidepressants for fifty quid notes.

Sponsors sign up here.

Its true!

On occasion I buy things that will be paid for by other people, groceries, electrical appliances, etc. I get the pleasure of having bought them, and when I take them to the people who have requested them. I get paid for them. There is nothing like counting large piles of 20's to put a smile on my face, even though I have to put it straight into the bank to cover the original purchases. I'm rich by proxy...LOL

Some say money can't buy you happiness or love, but it can sure as hell help you look for it......aaahhh ha ha ha.

Cause and effect?

Our society is so structured that in order to become rich you must first not care about other people, and above all that means you have to be a greedy, exploitative bastard who is prepared to get as much as you can while giving as little as possible. Otherwise, if you are the sort of person who helps others, shares your good fortune - by having such a nature you'll never be rich. Is it any surprise then that rich people are like this? It's not the money that makes people into sociopaths, it's that sociopaths are the ones who make the money!

money is like excesive force

if it isnt working, your not using enough.

Big deal

Big deal: humans are influenced by emotions <Shock! Horror!>

When they feel low they are more inclined to one behaviour pattern.

When they feel high they are more inclined to another behaviour pattern.

So, the capable, ready and willing observer might ask, is the big deal?

Nonetheless, people somewhere can (and should? nb: very big as in V-E-R-Y B-I-G moral question) use this phenomena.

For example, if the poor feel rejected and motivated well make them rich, no problemo (or is it?)

the exception being,...

... Bankers are rich but obviously not happy as no matter how rich they are or how big their bonuses they still keep stealing from everyone, and they complain if this is mentioned or at the suggestion they should pay back their ill-gotten bonuses and the money they stole.

Nonsense, surely?

Unless it was *their* money they were counting then the participants were not 'made to feel richer' because they were simply counting someone else's money.

Also, where's the control? Where's the group who didn't count anything at all?

We may as well draw the conclusion that touching patterned paper makes you happier and more tolerant of hot water than touching blank paper does.

Utter rubbish, surely?

@Sir Runcible Spoon

Nocebo effect? I think we may have been reading the same books :-)

They're not sure but it's a fascinating topic, precursor chemicals detected in the brain have been isolated and attributed to the placebo and the nocebo effect, it isn't all fluff and bunnies, there's some real science in there.

Half the anti-depressants on the market would NOT pass placebo testing today.

You can take patients on courses high morphine and slowly lower them to a saline solution and if the patient is told he is still on morphine they will feel no pain, this seems to work on about 2/3 of people. Then, without telling them, you can push a dose of Naloxone (an opiate blocker) into that saline solution and they WILL FEEL PAIN once again.

The jury is out on the placebo/nocebo effect, but it's fascinating stuff.

Thanks for the link that works with a session cookie

But no need to pay, you nonacademic plebs, you can grab a PDF copy from Vohs' publication list.