A science blog at the NY Times surveyed people about being a spendthrift v. being a tightwad and got very interesting results. (Spendthrift = person who spends recklessly, tightwad = person who doesn’t spend even when they should)
The researchers say they’re not sure just how prevalent tightwads and spendthrifts in the general population, but they did identify significant patterns among the tightwads and spendthrifts in their study:
* Men have a harder time spending money. Women are no more likely to be spendthrifts than tightwads, whereas men are nearly three times more likely to be tightwads than spendthrifts.
* Whether they find spending money painful has a much greater impact on the shopping behavior of men than of women. Women are more likely to take other factors into account when shopping, such as the extent to which spending is expected to be ‘therapeutic.’ As a result, the spending differences between male tightwads and male spendthrifts are generally much greater than the spending differences between female tightwads and female spendthrifts.
* Respondents in their 20s are more likely to be spendthrifts than any of the older age groups, and respondents over 70 are more likely to be tightwads than any younger age group. “Longitudinal research is needed,” the researchers write, “to determine whether this pattern reflects the effects of growing up in different generations, or instead whether people generally move toward the tightwad end of the continuum as they age.”
Naturally, I wanted to take the survey myself. It took me 15 minutes and asked questions I expected – about my shopping habits – and those I didn’t – like whether I have a will and how many incandescent light bulbs I have at home. Um, okay?!
I’m still waiting for my results. In the meantime, you can take the survey, or read a 15-page paper about the study in the Journal of Consumer Research. Here’s the blog post on the NY Times science blog about the survey results.
August 11th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Please share your results when they are in!
August 12th, 2009 at 11:53 am
when it comes to shoes, I am a spendthrift; anything else, I wait and would be considered a tightwad
August 17th, 2009 at 7:33 am
I’m STILL waiting. Not sure when I will receive my test results but will definitely share when they arrive. Did you get your results?
August 21st, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Interesting info on here, I like it.
August 22nd, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Have been guilty of being a spendthrift for many yrs.
It was mostly clothes and Shoes especially boots.
In the mid 80’s they had the most wonderful boots!
And I had money. I still yearn for the ability to buy boots
But the boots nowadays just don’t come up to what
they had back then. Also I’m older now and can’t wear
bright royal blue suede fringed boots.
But at any rate the tables have turned on me and
it is teaching me to be more like a tightwad. I am
on Disability and believe me that income doesn’t go far
in Los Angeles, So now count every penny and that has been very good for me in my character. I now
hope that if I ever had the chance to have extra cash
I would spend in a much wiser way.