Gerrit Antonides ^1* Thomas Post ²

• ¹ School of Social Sciences, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands
• ² Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands

The research topic of Psychology of Financial Management aims at combining insights from both 9 psychology and economics in the field of financial management. The concept of financial 10 management includes the way consumers, children, households, and entrepreneurs take economic 11 decisions about saving, spending, borrowing, investment, paying taxes, health insurance, and helping 12 behavior, among other issues. 13The research topic issue includes ten contributions from authors in the fields of economic Two studies deal with the psychological aspects associated with using available resources. Kappes' 74 first study analyzes responses of children in the UK to scenarios in which a girl could buy a gift. In 75 the first scenario the girl bought a gift, in the second scenario she did not buy the gift but could still 76give the gift enabled by her mother, and in the third scenario she did not buy the gift. In the first 77 (second) scenario, the children judged the girl in the scenario to be richer and happier than in the 78 second (third) scenario. In the second study, conducting in both the UK and the US, the child in the 79 scenario either or not bought something in a store, resulting in feeling more rich and more happy in 80 the first case. In the third study, in the UK, the child stated the hypothetical decision to buy 81 something from the store. Here, too, buying makes the children feel richer and happier than not 82 buying something. The study seems important for teaching children to refrain from buying by 83 counteracting the effect of the children feeling poor or unhappy. 84Kempson and Poppe deal with vulnerable people's self-efficacy in taking responsibility for making 85 payments. Although self-efficacy and taking responsibility appear to be significant factors in 86 overcoming problems of defaults and debts, their qualitative interviews in Norway show that the 87 interaction with creditors, debt enforcement agencies, and money advisors often reduces people's 88 self-efficacy, consequently leading to anxiety and depression, and worsening finances. 89The two studies show two sides of the coin of wealth experience, the first showing richness and 90 with spending, whereas the second shows that lacking resources may lead to lower self-91 efficacy and depression. 92Arnestad et al. study whether prosocial behaviors (i.e., providing help) are less pronounced if the 93 recipient benefits financially from the help, for example, by earning a sales profit. In three 94 experiments they find that motivation to help others is decreased when the recipient makes such 95 financial gains. Salient financial gains seem to change the giver's evaluation of a helping transaction 96 from (pro)social logic to a market logic. 97The special issue shows how financial management and financial behavior is studied from different 98 behavioral economic perspectives, often deviating from standard economic insights. The challenge of 99 incorporating psychological insights into economic models still remains to be taken up in future 100 research. 101 102