Abstract:

The theory of mental accounting posits that individuals create separate mental accounts for different decision-making tasks, each budgeted independently with non-fungible funds. This separate accounting management method reduces the efficiency of resource allocation, and it is thus considered a deviation from economic rationality. Despite being recognized as a cognitive bias or anomaly, mental accounting remains a persistent feature of human behavior and influences a wide range of financial decisions. A fundamental question, therefore, remains unanswered: if mental accounting is inherently inefficient, why has it been widely preserved through evolution?
Drawing on evolutionary psychology, this research advances the evolutionary origins hypothesis of mental accounting. We propose that mental accounting is not merely an irrational bias but an adaptive mechanism shaped by ancestral environments to fulfill three fundamental evolutionary goals: survival, reproduction, and hedonic well-being. These goals provide the structural foundation for the classification and management of mental accounts. Specifically, they shape the typical classification of mental accounts, while their relative importance and activation levels determine the rigidity of account governance. This governance is reflected in systematic patterns of preference in resource allocation, reinforcement of resource inputs when goal-relevant, and resistance to cross-account.
To test this hypothesis, we design four studies. Study 1 deconstructs and adapts Kahneman and Tversky’s classic theater ticket paradigm to separate two competing explanations of the mental accounting effect: (a) categorization as a general cognitive strategy and (b) semantic processing of account labels. By isolating these mechanisms, the study clarifies the underlying logic of mental accounting and tests whether the phenomenon arises primarily from the semantic content of account labels rather than from classification per se.
Study 2 examines whether typical mental accounting categories can be mapped onto the three evolutionary goals. Using both explicit and implicit measures, this study investigates whether survival goals correspond to the essential living account, reproduction goals to the relationship maintenance account, and hedonic goals to the leisure and entertainment account. Demonstrating this mapping provides direct evidence that mental accounting classification is not arbitrary but grounded in deep evolutionary functions.
Studies 3 and 4 respectively approached the issue from the perspectives of the importance of the goals and the degree of goal activation, aiming to answer how evolutionary goals influence the management rules of different mental accounts. Study 3 examines how the three account categories differ systematically in resource allocation, reinforcement of resource inputs, and resistance to cross-account transfers. Specifically, the essential living account is governed most rigidly, and the leisure and enjoyment account is managed with the greatest flexibility. This hierarchy corresponds to the relative importance of the three evolutionary goals: survival, reproduction, and hedonic well-being. Study 4 manipulates evolutionary goal activation to establish causal effects. Activating goals related to survival, reproduction, or hedonic well-being should increase the rigidity of the corresponding account’s governance.
By integrating macro-level evolutionary origins with micro-level operational mechanisms and linking theoretical deduction with empirical evidence, this study advances a hypothesis on the evolutionary origins of mental accounting. It connects the ultimate question of why mental accounts exist with the process-oriented inquiry of how they operate, thereby bridging a central theoretical gap in the field and addressing the fragmentation that has resulted from prior research’s narrow focus on isolated components. This framework situates mental accounting within a broader evolutionary logic, suggesting that what appears as economic irrationality may in fact represent adaptive decision strategies tuned to ancestral environments.
Beyond its theoretical value, the proposed framework offers important practical insights. It provides businesses with guidance to design more targeted product marketing strategies grounded in the semantics of evolutionary goals, and it helps individuals manage resources more effectively by prioritizing these goals. In doing so, it enables precise interventions that align with an understanding of the underlying evolutionary logic.

Key words: decision-making, irrational bias, mental accounting, evolutionary goals, evolutionary psychology