The Psychology of Money

I had the pleasure of working a fundraising event with my sons who are both swimmers on the high school team. They were bagging groceries for donations and I was staffing the collection box. It was a good night for a fundraiser, the night before Thanksgiving. The patrons were in a giving mood and the swimmers were thankful.

One of the tasks that I had was to take the money out of the box, count it and prepare it for a bank deposit. It was then that I observed a rather peculiar pattern. Those who gave one or two dollars folded their money multiple times or crumpled it up before they put it in the box. Those who gave 3-4 one dollar bills or gave 5, 10 or 20 dollar bills (and yes, there were quite a few who did), the money was never folded more than once (in half) and often not folded at all.

The hole on the lid of the box was large enough that no folding would be necessary. What was it that would make those who give less more included to multiple fold or crumple their donations. Was it embarrassment of giving such a small donation and the belief that folding or crumpling would disguise the amount given? Was it the larger contributors were proud of their giving and wanted those around them to see how much they were putting in the box? (Though, honestly, no one was watching the box that closely). Were the people giving the smaller donations more stressed and taking letting their anxiety show through their bill folding and crumpling?

As a researcher I know that such understanding would require research. I've only observed the phenomenon and have thus asked the question. The answer will have to come from one of those senseless government-funded research projects (you know, like the one that was done to determine how fast ketchup runs out of a bottle). But there's something to it. If you know... reply and educate us all.

Fire Chief (ret.) Richard B. Gasaway, PhD, EFO, CFO, MICP
http://www.richgasaway.com/