← all facts
finance
You value money differently depending on where it came from.
A 1985 study found that people treat funds differently—and are more likely to spend 'windfall' gains—even when the amount is logically identical to their earned income.
Mental accounting creates psychological compartments for money. We assign different labels, such as 'savings', 'disposable', or 'bonus', which govern our spending habits more strongly than the total value of the money itself.
Your bank balance is one number, but your brain processes it as a dozen separate budgets.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Richard Thaler, 1985, Marketing Science
- What the check found
- The 1985 Marketing Science paper is the foundational text for the 'mental accounting' theory. While accurate, the claim treats a theoretical model as a single experimental study.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.