Liz Weston: Times when money isn’t real
Money is money, whether it’s cash in our hands, plastic cards at checkout counters or encrypted bits of data coursing between computers on the internet.
But our brains don’t view all money as equal, thanks to what behavioral economists call “cognitive biases”:
—We spend cash more carefully than plastic.
—We regard tax refunds as a windfall rather than a return of what we earned.
—We’d rather have money now than more money later.