Individual differences in contributing factors to monetary illusion.

Summary The term "money illusion" was first coined by the American economist Irving Fisher in 1928 to describe the phenomenon whereby individuals do not perceive the increase or decrease in value of monetary units. Over the following decades, economists, psychologists and behavioural scientists first debated the existence of the money illusion, before refining and expanding its definition. This thesis builds on previous research on money illusion, with the goal of identifying, using experimental methods, the characteristics that explain the occurrence of money illusion at the individual level, as well as the factors that may help reduce its occurrence. This thesis first summarizes the evolution of the concept of money illusion from Fisher's discovery to the latest advances in behavioral science on this subject. It then presents the results of three separate experiments conducted to identify several factors that we have hypothesized contribute to the money illusion or to its reduction. The first focuses on the relationship between money illusion, financial education, and computation. The second focuses specifically on computation and numerical skills in general as a means of overcoming money illusion. and the third on whether temporal perspectives can explain and/or mitigate money illusion.