Who cares if money can't buy you love? But it can still be your best friend forever. That's one of the surprising findings in a new research paper, "The Power of Money", published in me journal Psychological Science. Like any best friend forever, money demonstrated to researchers its ability to _ us, reduce our sense of social exclusion and even reduce life's painful moments. "I was surprised" says Katherine Vohs, one of the researchers and professor at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. "The findings were surprising because no one had connected the meaning of money to pain. The money wasn't buying the subjects more friends; it was only psychologically helpful." In the research ,students were told they would be participating in a test of finger dexterity . One group was given some paper money to count, while the other group was given blank pieces of paper. Once the counting was complete, all the test subjects were asked to dip their fingers into bowls of water heated to 122 degrees--roughly the temperature of a very hot bath. Result? Those who had been counting money reported less pain than those who had not. Subjects also were asked about their feelings. Those who handled actual money reported feeling stronger even 10 minutes after they put down the cash. Combined with previous experiments, the findings confirmed what researchers have long doubted, that money acts as a general panacea  in the brain, giving us social self-confidence and reducing physical pain without having to spend a dime on aspirin. But can we get the same effect by using credit cards? "No, credit cards do not have the same effect, " Vohs says. "They are scary for most people, and they in fact represent debt m many ways." The findings could have an interesting effect in the business world, where recent trends have been to issue non-monetary rewards and bonuses instead of what was thought of as "cold, hard cash". What do we know about the students involved in the study?
They were divided into two groups according to their ages. One group was given paper money while the other was given coins. They were holding the money while dipping fingers into hot water. Both groups were asked to dip fingers into hot water.