I was Unaware and I Needed the Money! Success and Failure in Behavioral Regulation toward Consciously and Unconsciously Perceived Monetary Cues

Abstract

Previous research has shown that both consciously and unconsciously perceived monetary rewards lead to enhanced performance on cognitive and physical tasks. The present research investigates whether the value of unconscious (but not conscious) money-cues boosts task performance even when they are not rewards but just stimuli. Experiment 1 showed that unconsciously, but not consciously perceived high versus low value coins indeed led to improved performance on a working memory task even when the coins did not serve as rewards. Experiment 2 qualified this finding by showing that only people who were currently in need of money were prone to enhanced performance through unconsciously perceived monetary non-rewards. These experiments reveal the powerful influence of money on human behavior by showing that (1) need-relevant incentive value cues in the environment are able to unconsciously boost performance, and (2) conscious awareness causes people to spontaneously regulate non-instrumental motivated responses.

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