Study: People would pay to talk about themselves rather than talk about Obama for free

A new study says -- surprise -- people really like talking about themselves. They'll even give up money if it means they can tell you more boring stuff about themselves than show interest in anything else.

Via Wall Street Journal:

In several tests, [researchers] offered the volunteers money if they chose to answer questions about other people, such as President Obama, rather than about themselves, paying out on a sliding scale of up to four cents. Questions involved casual matters such as whether someone enjoyed snowboarding or liked mushrooms on a pizza. Other queries involved personality traits, such as intelligence, curiosity or aggression.

Despite the financial incentive, people often preferred to talk about themselves and willingly gave up between 17% and 25% of their potential earnings so they could reveal personal information.

The reasoning: Our brains fire off feelings of pleasure when we self-disclose.

That explains how Newt Gingrich's campaign ended up so far in debt.