Caught this in a headline this morning on MSNBC’s site:
If you’re sad and shopping, watch your wallet: A new study shows people’s spending judgment goes out the window when they’re down, especially if they’re a bit self-absorbed.
And we needed a “new study” to tell us that? Whoa! But the really interesting part, to me, is that it wasn’t just the factor of sadness that affected people’s buying, it was that coupled with a great focus on the self:
The study found a willingness to spend freely by sad people occurs mainly when their sadness triggers greater “self-focus.” That response was measured by counting how frequently study participants used references to “I,” “me,” “my” and “myself” in writing an essay about how a sad situation such as the one portrayed in the video would affect them personally.
If that isn’t a reason to see through the machinations of self (as “I”) then I don’t know what is… Check out the full article here.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Fascinating!
February 8th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Yeah, someone’s been reinventing the wheel… We should qualify the “self-absorbtion” though, as in this case it refers almost entirely to an unhealthy ego’s vulnerability to repressed impulses and its own inauthenticity, both a great source of human susceptibility to subliminal suggestion and manipulation, often not so subliminal. In other words, the bad rep of self is just collateral in this sad affair. Thanks for the post.
Hokai