Touching Money Relieves Pain

Our happy hour fact to amaze your drinking buddies with.

Touching money can reduce physical pain and feelings of social alienation.

Researchers had 96 volunteers either count hundred dollar bills or blank pieces of paper before having their fingers dipped in 122-degree water. The volunteers who had handled the money reported feeling less physical pain than those who counted paper.

In a similarly structured experiment, the researchers found that those who were made to get the short end of the stick in an unfair multiplayer game responded with a lower level of social distress if they had been in the group which counted money -- not paper -- before playing.

So was Scrooge McDuck really a hopelessly obnoxious miser, or did he dive into that pool of money to help alleviate chronic back pain? Furthermore, is it strange that that question immediately comes to mind?

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