[speechlesstx]

Bwaaa-ha-ha-ha!

Paying taxes feels good, say researchers.

The surprising discovery, based on brain scans, can also predict which people are most likely to donate cash to charity.

Bill Harbaugh at the University of Oregon in Eugene, US, and colleagues gave 19 female university students $100, and told them some of this money would have to go towards taxes.

Each volunteer then read a series of 60 separate taxation scenarios involving $0 to $45 in taxes, knowing that one of the scenarios would be selected at random and the related amount be subtracted from their $100.

Secret pleasure

As the participants viewed the tax scenarios, their brains were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Surprisingly, whenever the students read the taxation scenarios, scientists saw a spike in activity within two of the brain's reward centres – the nucleus accumbens and caudate nucleus.

Harbaugh says that people probably like paying taxes more than they admit. He believes the results of his new study help explain the widespread compliance with tax laws. "We like to complain about it, but based on what we do, we are not as opposed to it as we like to say," Harbaugh says.

Economist Robert Frank of Cornell University comments that tax-paying might stimulate positive feelings in the brain because the process helps equalise the burden of helping others.

Harbaugh then repeated the experiment, but instead of the money being given in taxation, the scenarios related to charity donations, and the participants could choose to give their money.

Bigger boost

These brain scans suggest that donating money creates an even greater boost in brain reward centres than paying mandatory taxes.

Harbaugh explains this bigger boost has to do with the fact that voluntary donations are a personal choice: "You feel better because it was your agency that made the difference. Usually, when you are giving, people are watching," he says, which can be an ego boost.

Harbaugh was also able to predict a person's generosity based on their brain response to paying tax.

The 10 subjects who showed the greatest brain activity in response to hypothetical taxes in the first part of the study later chose to donate money twice as often as the other nine subjects.

At the end of the experiment, those whose brains responded more positively to tax-paying generally gave about $17 to charity, while the other nine subjects gave $10, on average.

So 19 female college students in one of the most liberal areas of the country get pleasure from paying taxes. I think Harbaugh should come and run his study here in the Texas Panhandle. I don't mind paying a fair share of taxes, but I certainly don't enjoy it, do you? Every year when my property tax statement comes I go ballistic - but I do LOVE to give to charity. Even more so when my money hasn't been confiscated by the government. How about you?

[shygrneyzs]

I don't object to donating to charity, but there are only a very few I consider anymore. I also don't like paying taxes but since taxes are a sure thing, I don't have much choice unless I want to spend time behind bars. But I realize taxes pay for public services like roads, city water, sanitation, emergency services, etc. Still, paying taxes does not give me that warm fuzzy feel good feeling. Lol.

[RubyPitbull]

My hand cramps up and my heart palpitates every time I have to write out a check.

For anything.

At tax time, the above scenario happens along with a lot of wailing and sobbing noises.

[Skell]

I will be happy to pay $200,000 in tax a year. Very happy indeed. It means I'm earning $400,000.

I don't mind seeing large tax bills. Means my earning are up!

Id prefer to avoid them but since I can't I'm happy to pay as much as possible.

[speechlesstx]

I will be happy to pay $200,000 in tax a year. Very happy indeed. It means i'm earning $400,000.

I don't mind seeing large tax bills. Means my earning are up!

Id prefer to avoid them but since i can't im happy to pay as much as possible.

I guess that's one way to look at it. Unfortunately for me, the taxes keep adding up faster than my income grows.

[tomder55]

I do not mind paying taxes ;no warm and fuzzy feelings however . I do object to excess taxation especially when waste ,inefficiency and abuse is so blatantly inherent in the tax collection and distribution system . In Luke 3, when tax collectors ask him how to live, Jesus tells them : "Don't collect any more than you are required to" .

I do feel good about my charitable contributions and I try to be a generous as possible. I object to the government deciding for me which charities I should support through confiscation of my income. I see no virtue in being Robin Hood's victim. But I do see virtue in voluntary giving .as an example... I give generously to 'Habitat for Humanity ' .But there is no way the good work that the organization does can counter the negatives that housing authorities and regulations that my tax dollars support do to damage the prospects of homeowners.

[ETWolverine]

Surprisingly, whenever the students read the taxation scenarios, scientists saw a spike in activity within two of the brain's reward centres – the nucleus accumbens and caudate nucleus.

Aren't those the same centers of the brain that are stimulated when S&M people get whipped?

What does that tell us? I guess that some people are just masochists by nature.

Elliot

[ETWolverine]

I guess that part of the problem is that some people see our tax dollars as a charity source... our tax dollars pay for welfare and social programs and have created a generation of people who feel entitled. So I guess from that perspective taxes are a form of charity, and those who enjoy giving charity would get enjoyment from paying taxes.

I wonder how valid that test really was. What if instead of giving each of these people $100, the doctor instead said "You must EARN the $100 and then pay taxes on it." Would there have been the same pleasurable reaction from these students if they had to earn the money as there was from receiving and paying taxes on FREE money that they didn't have to work for? That would be a more realistic test, wouldn't it?

Elliot

[mr.yet]

I would rather take the tax money, and spend it, which in turn will help the boost the sales of items, and help put more people to work, put some in a retirement fund, so, a can still spend when I retire. Keep the economy strong and everyone working will make the world a easier place to live.

Income tax does not do this.

[inthebox]

I wonder how people would feel, if every time they get a paycheck, instead of a payroll with-holding, they had to send a separate check to the IRS, oasdi, state [ if applicable ], city , county etc.. I wonder how much a spike there would be in the nucleus accumbens and caudate nucleus of people - you could study millions of people to get valid results.

Better yet, study the effect of earmarks and spending of the brains of congresspeople.
I bet that gets their 'pleasure centers' going.



A study size of only 19? - statistically no power at all, not even considering selection bias.
Seems the 'investigator' just wanted to prove a point.


There is a book out "Who really cares" - I can't remember who wrote it , but there is a section on tax rate and charitable giving - found an inverse relationship.





Grace and Peace

[speechlesstx]

I guess that part of the problem is that some people see our tax dollars as a charity source... our tax dollars pay for welfare and social programs and have created a generation of people who feel entitled. So I guess from that perspective taxes are a form of charity, and those who enjoy giving charity would get enjoyment from paying taxes.

I wonder how valid that test really was. What if instead of giving each of these people $100, the doctor instead said "You must EARN the $100 and then pay taxes on it." Would there have been the same pleasurable reaction from these students if they had to earn the money as there was from receiving and paying taxes on FREE money that they didn't have to work for? That would be a more realistic test, wouldn't it?

I think you're right on both points.

[speechlesstx]

I wonder how people would feel, if every time they get a paycheck, instead of a payroll with-holding, they had to send a separate check to the IRS, oasdi, state [ if applicable ], city , county etc.. I wonder how much a spike there would be in the nucleus accumbens and caudate nucleus of people - you could study millions of people to get valid results.

Good point, it's much less traumatic to never see that money withheld than to actually write checks for it. I bet that would spike activity in another part of the brain.

Better yet, study the effect of earmarks and spending of the brains of congresspeople.
I bet that gets their 'pleasure centers' going.

That's got to be better than sex for some of them.

There is a book out "Who really cares" - I can't remember who wrote it , but there is a section on tax rate and charitable giving - found an inverse relationship.

From a review of the book, "In WHO REALLY CARES, Arthur C. Brooks finds that religious conservatives are far more charitable than secular liberals, and that those who support the idea that government should redistribute income are among the least likely to dig into their own wallets to help others."

I think if anything the "study" shows young coeds in the liberal northwest are more than willing to spend other people's money.