Title: Is Money the Root of All Evil? The Effect of Money on Value-Seeking and Consumption Decisions

Speaker: Min Zhao, Associate Professor, Boston College

Host: Zhengyu Shi, Assistant Professor, Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Time: 14:00-15:30, Thursday, June 18, 2026

Venue: Room A303, Antai Building, Xuhui Campus, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Brief introduction of the content: 

Drawing on research on money and consumer heuristics, we hypothesize that thoughts on money increase consumers’ value-seeking tendency. Based on consumers’ lay belief in what represents greater value, we demonstrate different effects of money in two consumption domains: 1) when the decision involves trade-off between product functionality and convenience, and 2) when the decision involves consumption quantity. Project 1 shows that money priming can increase preference toward products with greater functionality despite their low convenience because of consumers’ lay belief that greater functionality (but not greater convenience) represents higher value. When consumers are led to believe that greater convenience represents higher value, money and the value-seeking tendency result in a greater preference toward easier products. Project 2 shows that money priming leads to greater amount of consumption because of the lay belief that “more is better”. Ironically, consuming a higher amount does not necessarily increase enjoyment. This effect of money thoughts on overconsumption is attenuated when the belief of “the more the better” is weakened with a satisficing mindset, and reversed when the consumption is negative in nature where more is clearly not better. Theoretical contributions to research on money and value-seeking as well as practical implications for both projects are discussed.

Speaker's profile:

Professor Min Zhao is on the Marketing faculty at Boston College. Her primary research focuses on decision over time that pertains to consumers’ financial decisions, everyday task completion, new product adoption, and hedonic consumptions. She uses the behavioral economics approach to help consumers stay committed to their long-term goals in these domains. Professor Zhao has published in leading marketing and psychological journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, and Psychological Science. Her research findings are featured in major media including the Wall Street Journal or Financial Times.

Professor Zhao was identified by the American Marketing Association (AMA) as authors with top research productivity in the premier Marketing Journals in four consecutive years from 2013 to 2016. She was also named a Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Young Scholar and MSI Scholar. She received her PhD in marketing from UNC Chapel Hill. Prior to joining Boston College, she was with the marketing faculty at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.

Welcome all!