The role of money in everyday life decisions: Investigating the effect of priming money on decision-making aspects with uncertain consequences

Decision-making is an area of ​​human life that the cognitive sciences have long dreamed of drawing a complete profile of it.

Considering the importance of identifying the role of priming money in everyday decision-making and also the lack of focus on this area, this study was conducted to investigate the mentioned priming on aspects of risk assessments and optimal selections among given options.

The research method was quasi – experimental with comparison group. The statistical population was all students of Allameh Tabataba'i University in Tehran in 2020-2021. From students of Bachelor of Science and Master of Science, 30 students were purposefully selected, then randomly divided into experimental and comparison groups. Data were collected using IOWA Gambling Task (IGT) and Barrat Impulsivity Scale and then analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance in SPSS-24 software.

Significant differences were observed in the selection of cards from the advantageous decks in experimental group (M:31.26; SD:12.34) compared to the comparison group (M:22.06; SD:12.14) in the IGT (P<0.05).

According to the findings of this study, priming money in laboratory situations have the ability to influence the cognitive dimensions of everyday decision making and in particular, improving the selective function and the prediction of estimated value result in choosing more cards from the advantageous decks in the IGT.