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I'm sure we all have that friend that's just awful with money. You know, the one that complains about being broke, but then maxes out his or her credit card at the mall. You may shake your head at their folly, but perhaps you should be reconsidering your friendship. As it turns out, the more you hang out with a spendthrift, the more you may see your own spending habits change for the worse.

In a recent study, participants followed text updates from two fictitious volunteers that were trying to outbid each other on a prize. Each bidder had 360 points available to bid towards the item, which had a real-world value of $4.45.

The participants were told that once the bidder reached bid 356 points, they would start to lose some of the $12 they were paid to be in the study.When the bidders were near the 356 point threshold, the participants had the chance to take over bidding for them.

Here's the interesting part. Some of the participants were told that they had things in common with the bidders; the same birthday, or the same home town. Other participants were not told anything about the bidder.

The participants who identified with the bidder made 60-percent more bids and were more likely to continue bidding past 356 points and start losing the $12 payment than those who did not feel a connection with them. Scientists hypothesize that this can show that people are more likely to adopt the psychology of friends and make the same money mistakes as them.

Source: Discover