Good article and interesting study with multiple psychological inputs. I think debt in general is difficult to process mentally because "negative" money is qui

Good article and interesting study with multiple psychological inputs. I think debt in general is difficult to process mentally because "negative" money is quite different than "positive" money. Money that you have can be visualized - you can spend it or even pull it all out in cash and see exactly how much it is and how it grows or shrinks. Debt is purely a number on piece of paper or a screen. You can't "run out" of debt or go to the bank and get your debt in negative dollars. So without paying careful attention to financial rules like compound interest, dealing with debt is something that humans just aren't inherently very good at.