Cash is evaluated on a cognitive level. A cash award is valued by calculating how it compares to your current salary, or to what you could buy with it. Is it as big as a paycheck or smaller? Can it buy a cellphone or will it help me get a new car? And because money is fungible, as often as not it’s spent on staples rather than splurging on a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes or a massage, and fades from memory. Non-cash awards, whether they are experiences (a dinner for two) or gifts (a Nexus 7 tablet), trigger an emotional response. Recipients focus on the fact of what they get to experience,
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