An analysis of the shopping patterns of more than 1,000 consumers finds that when paying cash, people tend to choose healthier options.

A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests spending cash on puchases leads to healthier choices. (iStock)"Two factors contribute to this intriguing effect," write the authors, who are marketing professors from Cornell University and State University of New York.

"First, there is the correlation between unhealthiness and impulsiveness of food items: unhealthy food items tend to elicit impulsive responses."

The researchers posit that when people pay for items using a debit or credit card, it feels less like spending real money, so they tend to be more impulsive in their purchasing.

'Cash payments are psychologically more painful than card payments.'— Research study

"Second, cash payments are psychologically more painful than card payments, and this pain of payment can curb the impulsive responses to buy unhealthy food."

The study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, notes that the purchase of unhealthy food products is influenced by many factors such as faulty beliefs and lack of knowledge.

But researchers suggest impulsivity may be the single most influential factor in an individual's decision to buy unhealthy foods.

"Since the desire that triggers impulsive behaviour is caused by visceral factors, it can be weakened by other aversive visceral factors," the study says.

The authors cite an experiment where consumers were given $50 in either cash or in the form of a certificate. Those given a certificate consistently outspent those given cash.

The authors say the results of the experiment fit with other research that shows that "cash payments feel different from other less vivid and emotionally more inert modes of payments."

More impulsive purchases, so-called vice products, include things such as cookies, cakes and pies. Deliberative, or so-called virtue products, include fat-free yogurt and whole wheat bread.

The study concludes that when people are paying cash, they are more likely to ask whether it's a purchase they really need.