Money: the good, the bad, & the ugly

People are persuaded to do things—buy faded jeans, donate blood, eat healthier, vote—not (only) because they are threatened with a baseball bat, but (also) because of the stories that they have read. Society’s age-long fascination with the power of money and storytelling is central to this talk. How to persuade “Master of the Universe”-type bankers to see themselves as the bad guys in a story? What effect do word search puzzles have on responsibility and blame? The “magic” of money storytelling will explain all this.

Have you ever imagined of using a banknote with the face of David Bowie or of Vincent van Gogh on it for buying your groceries? Have you ever thought of money that could be only used into your local neighbourhood and nowhere else? You have never used complementary currencies then! These are forms of alternative money that rapidly diffused in the aftermath of the financial crisis. This talk is going to show how these different forms of money influence the way in which people think about money, use money and do their shopping.