RE: My Steemit Psychology: The Freedom to Give & Magical Imaginary Money
I think the key here is the "one step away". Voting power is money, when you use your voting power on someone it quite literally costs you money. But since there is an extra step between that money being yours, and that money only being potential, it is much easier to use it.
The other interesting thing is how it affects the view of liquidity. Many people have an issue with keeping money in their bank account, especially the poor. Got a Christmas bonus? I must immediately spend it in it's entirety on those things I couldn't get for the past year. Even though saving that money for a medical emergency would mean that I would save money in the long term, possibly more money than that Christmas bonus.
If our entire income would be placed immediately into savings account, and we'd actively have to pull money out of the savings account to pay our bills, I believe a lot more people would be saving. And this is something that people that get paid in cryptocurrency already benefit from. It's money in a savings account, which you don't usually spend (aside from some examples you've given) and you have to actively decide you need it liquid in order to spend it. It's a truly wonderful thing, that one step remote of liquid.