How Does Merle van den Akker See the Role of Emotions In People’s Money-Spending Habits?

In this episode of Digital Banking Podcast, Josh DeTar features a conversation with guest - Merle van den Akker. Merle is a Behavioural Science Ph.D. student at the Warwick Business School in England. Merle’s motto is “You are never done learning” and she backs this up as a host the Questioning Behaviour podcast and as a blog writer at Money On The Mind. 

Merle’s inspiration for all of her work are two big questions: “Why do people spend the money they spend, and why don't people make certain investments?”. One of the main topics she’s researched is around whether online banking and tracker apps really help people with their finances. What’s the behavior that fuels our financial decisions? 

If you want to learn how emotions can influence people’s decisions regarding money, how different payment methods influence your spending habits, and what’s the science behind contactless cards & our spending behavior - tune in to hear it straight from Merle van den Akker. 

P.S. - She also had an interesting point of view about whether we should get back to cash or not, so don’t miss out on it!