He and his colleagues have since been able to observe the expected patterns of pain in the brains of tightwads and spendthrifts in fMRI experiments involving shopping tasks. It turns out ...

Fox falls into a category of people that the University of Michigan marketing professor Scott Rick has spent years studying: “tightwads,” or people who have trouble spending their money.

Differences between tightwads and spendthrifts are greatest in situations that amplify the pain of paying. But it may be that spending money on gifts is just as painful as usual for tightwads.