An article in a magazine called “The Journal of Consumer Affairs” reports that buying groceries with cash rather than a credit card fills the shopping cart with healthier food.
Researchers from Cornell University created an experiment to demonstrate their theory.
Shoppers were shown 10 “vice” foods (such as Oreos) and 10 “virtue” foods (such as beans and barley) on a computer screen and decided if they wanted to add them to their buy list.
Half were assigned credit cards; half cash. Those using credit cards chose more un-healthy foods. Another experiment evaluated the actual shopping choices made by 1,000 households and found that those who used credit or debit cards bought more unhealthy foods.
The academics who conducted the study concluded that people often buy unhealthy foods on impulse and theorized that it is less painful to buy with a credit card than with cash because the transaction with a card is “abstract and emotionally inert,” while parting with a $100 bill “is a very vivid and concrete action” that can make a person think twice about an impulse buy.
Paying with cash, they decided, results in better purchasing decisions because “if you perceive something is necessary and good for you,” it hurts less to fork over the cash.
OTHER STUDIES by other scholars make an even better case for buying with real money: when it is spent, it is gone. Buying with credit cards is borrowing money. And that can be even more unhealthy than Oreos.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
