Mental Accounting and the Illusion of Money: The Impact of Income Source on Gen Z Consumption Intentions

As Gen Z becomes the main consumer group, their irrational consumption behaviors based on differences in income sources have become increasingly prominent. Based on the theories of psychological accounts and the non-substitutability of money, this paper uses the digital payment ecosystem as a case to explore the mechanism by which income sources affect the consumption intentions of the Gen Z. The study found that the Gen Z categorizes funds into "hard-earned money", "safety net", and "free money" accounts through cognitive partitioning, presenting a significant dual-path effect: at the functional level, this mechanism reduces decision-making costs, activates experiential consumption and long-tail market demands; at the risk level, it induces impulsive consumption and debt cycles under the "free money effect", "label fixation" leading to financial dependence, and the "fragmentation paradox" and budget control failure in the multi-wallet ecosystem. Based on this, this paper proposes systematic strategies such as reconfiguring payment labels, strengthening financial socialization, and enhancing wallet transparency, expanding the application boundaries of the psychological account theory in the digital economy, and providing a theoretical basis and practical inspirations for building a healthy and sustainable digital consumption ecosystem.