April 6, 2009 • 18 mins
Stereotypes peg women as shopaholics, but studies show that both men and women are susceptible to compulsive shopping. Discover how our brains -- and savvy marketers -- influence our purchases in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stop? Mom? Never told
you from housetop works dot com. Hey thereon, Welcome to
the podcast. This is Kristen, This is Molly. Molly, as promised,
(00:23):
UM and I honored this podcast. I'm going to tell
you a nickname of mine, given to me by by
a boyfriend that you probably have never never heard. No,
I've been promised this anecdote for today. It's not too revolutionary,
but Molly, Um, I am in some circles known as
the thrifty nickel. Oh, it's so adorable. Yeah, it's kind
(00:46):
of adorable. But also, um, it's sort of an insult
because I really don't like spending money. I'm you could
say I'm a little bit of a tight watz apply. Yeah.
I like to shop, but I shop alone. I go
for things. I'm kind of like, you know, like a hunter.
I can see it, get it, leave. I'm not a
person to go try on fifty dresses and see which
(01:09):
one I like. If I don't like it on the rack,
I'm leaving. Any better be coming with me? Do you
um have guilt when you shop. Is that what kind
of makes you a Thrifty Nickel buyer's remorse, Yes, it's
it's a big problem. Um, if I don't, if I
don't feel like I'm getting a good bargain on something,
I will probably be back in that store returning the
item in the following week. So you do buy the item.
(01:32):
Sometimes it depends. Uh, it more depends on my mood.
But a lot of times I'll just avoid shopping all together.
And unless I know that there's some kind of big
sale going on. Well, this all leads us into the
idea of I'm sure Kristen is not the only Thrifty
Nickel listening today. Um. And but on the other hand,
you know, we talk about female issues on this podcast,
(01:53):
and one of the big female stereotypes is that girls
love to shop. Um, you know, and maybe you really
actually kind Do you love to shop and you like
the reward of getting a big deal? Oh? Absolutely, I
mean there's nothing like finding a fair boots that are
fifty percent off. I mean I love it. I feel
like I want a marathon or something. Right, And so,
you know, we're just bombarded with these images and movies
(02:14):
and TV of like the girls loaded down with bags.
And what's kind of interesting is that the reason I
was asking Christen about guilt is that scientists have hooked
our brains up to machines and tried to figure out
why we buy what we buy and how that makes
us feel. And what we're gonna get into later is
that this totally affects the way that people market goods
(02:35):
and services to women. And I like talking about that
stereotype about women shopping. I think that women and men
certainly shop in a different way, and we shop four
different things. I think I saw in the Wall Street
Journal yesterday that in terms of retail items, women's shop
on a one to three year cycle, or as men
wal shop on a ten year cycle. So they buy
We buy clothes for a season. Men buy clothes for
(02:57):
years to come. But as a matter of fact, according
to the American Journal of Psychiatry, men are just as
likely to shop compulsively as we are. They just might
be more reluctant to to let anyone know about that
their secret, their secret. Shame. Yeah, So I think that
we should talk about how just a brain, male, female, whatever,
(03:19):
how our brain processes shopping, right, because if you learn
from this podcast that you can blame all your shopoholic
nature's or your thirty nickel natures on your brain. You know,
that might make it easier easier stomach. Okay, so let's
start off. We've got an article called is my brain
making me buy things I don't need? And it revolves
(03:40):
around the study. Research was published in January two thousand
seven UH and the journal Neuron that UH shows that
when we spend, it's because things are going on in
our brain that we have no control over whatsoever. Right,
there are all these cognitive functions that are going on,
but they're also emotional issue us attached to shopping and
(04:03):
actually purchasing something. And when the researchers hooked participants up
to an f M R I machine, they found that
an area of the brain called the nucleus incumbents lights
up when we see something that we like and want
to buy. Now, this section near the middle of the
(04:24):
brain is associated with our rewards center. If we see
something that we like and then we we have it,
will feel a sense of reward like I do when
I buy bargain sweaters or whatever it might be. UM
and then once once we see the price, are an
area in our brain called the mesiol prefrontal cortex lights
(04:47):
up in this region the brain is known for higher
executive functions, and it seems like the when when this
part of the brain lights up, it's like we're trying
to decide whether or not what we're looking at is
worth the actual cost of it, and then the actual
decision of whether or not we're going to purchase that
(05:07):
handbag or pair of boots or whatever happens in the
insula and depending on whether or not we buy it,
it will it will light up. Right. So, how this
all worked in practice was when the people went into
the MRI machine, they were handed forty dollars in cash.
They've guide in their hand, it's there is to spend,
(05:27):
and then they're shown images of these things that you know,
they can decide to buy or not. They can push
a yes no button and say yeah, I want that,
and then at the end of the experiment, the prices
were subtracted from their forty dollars and the change was theirs.
So before people even push the yes no button, scientists
could tell what they were going to pick based on
(05:48):
whether that part that Christmas talking about the insula lit up. Um.
The insula is just sort of be no, you're it's
kind of like your no button. Basically, if you're insula
lit up, then you decide not to buy the product
because as the ends didn't justify the means, um, but
if it didn't light up, then you were like bye
bye bye. And it's interesting because the insula is sort
(06:09):
of the opposite of the brain's pleasure center. It's more
associated with with pain and regret. So if the insula
is lighting up and you go ahead and buy it anyway,
you know, you might feel horribly guilty about it, but
it's very unconscious. You definitely haven't felt the pain yet.
You can just sort of, you know, party brains anticipating
that there will be pain because this is happening so fast.
(06:30):
I mean when they were flashing these images on the
screen and then the price that was happening all within
maybe ten seconds. Oh, I would bet less, but I
mean I have no time on the matter. But anyway,
it is happening very fast, which is why, um, you
don't want to be making quick spur of the moment purchases.
That's how you get of you know, you don't give
(06:51):
your brain time to do all it's deliberating and this
action that happens in the brain is something that behavioral
economists called trans action utility. Yes, and that's the measure
of whether or not what we are getting is going
to be a good deal and therefore pleasurable, or if
we're going to um be spending too much than we
(07:13):
should and we'll be experiencing pain from it. Now, so experimently,
just described works for males or females. Everyone has this
going on in their brain when they go shopping. But
the reason it really relates to females in particular is
that women buy more. You know, we are in charge
of a lot more household purchases. Um, we have the
stereotype that we'd like to go buy clothes and you know,
(07:35):
you know, throw off an afternoon that way. So, knowing
this about everyone's brains, there's a field called neuroeconomics that
goes even deeper into a female brain to say, what
else can we learn about a female's brain that will
influence how she buys things? Right? And there was an
article in The New York Times um talking about how
(07:58):
snorro economics applied to you a new advertising campaign by
Freedo Lay Company. They know that women snack more often
than men, but for some reason, women were not going
for Lay's products. They were eating other things. And they
also knew, as we were talking before that that women
were experiencing all of this guilt associated with snacking, so
(08:19):
they wanted to develop these Uh so they wanted to
develop an ad campaign specifically targeting women to get them
to acknowledge the guilt, but go ahead and buy some
freed A Lay products anyway. Right. They knew that based
on MRI scans, that women were relied more on the
emotional side of their brain when making choices. So they're like, Okay,
(08:44):
women have all this guilt when they eat snacks. Um.
They don't want to say just guilt free, because you
know that still implies that guilt could be had. But
the new packaging talks about how it's just so good
for you. Yeah, and and the commercials are very like, hey, gals,
we know what it's like. You're at the gym and
you're hungry and you're all sweaty. Why don't you just
(09:04):
open up a bag of sonships because you're acknowledging that
you're doing something good for you. Like, you're gonna start
seeing lots of packaging. Um that emphasizes the healthy ingredients,
puts that on the forefront as opposed to zero calories,
which reminds you about calories altogether. They're going to bypass
that and go straight to like, oh don't you love
all natural products? And and these little animated female characters
(09:27):
that they're using are meant to, like, you know, really
commiserate with with the women and the fake women in
in the ads. You got there, I've been there. I'm
just hungry. I just want to snack. And don't they
talk about I didn't realize they had accents in the commercial, Christen,
but don't they all my mind? Don't they also talk
about stuff, um like bras and shopping and all these
(09:51):
things that women supposedly love and want camaraderie with. Yeah,
it's kind of sex in the city on steroids in
a horrible way to make your b to make you
buy potato chips. Um. So that's just one very small
example of how they're using your brain to get to you. Um.
But Chris, and I know you brought some information in
about how they arrange grocery stores just to get you. Oh. Absolutely,
(10:14):
walk into any grocery store and you've got uh neuroeconomics
in its finest form. You know, uh, sorry, okay, what's uh? So,
the area immediately inside a supermarket where they usually place
(10:35):
a lot of displays and promotional items is called the
decompression zone, and this is really where, uh they want
you to just you know, take take in the store,
you know, start seeing things that you want to buy,
and then you move into fresh fruits and vegetables. And
this always bugs me, and I think it bugs a
lot of other people because if you buy your bananas
(10:57):
first and then you go buy you know, your can
be or whatever it is, your bananas are going to
get squashed. But the thinking behind this is that selecting
your good, wholesome fresh food is a good way to
start shopping. You're doing something good for yourself, so that
by the time you make your way to the middle
of the store and start running into oh, I don't know,
freedom a product or something like that, uh, you'll be
(11:19):
more willing to indulge a little bit. Yeah, you know,
you start off good, then you're like, oh, well, I
have fruit, I can have cookies too. And they put
the common items like milk and cheese and eggs and
things that most people just need to run in and
buy in the back of the store, so that you
have to walk through other aisles of food that you
that you wouldn't normally walk through. And this is all
(11:41):
to boost your dwell time or your time and your
store because the thinking goes that the longer you spend
at a store, the more likely you are to buy more.
And so you're and plus I would bet I mean,
there's no research on this, but I bet your brain
gets tired. We were talking earlier about you know, these
trains actions that are happening in our brain between pain
(12:02):
and pleasure. By the time you get to the cookie,
I'll I don't know if your brain could still handle that.
Mine can't mind gets overloaded at the grocery store as
the cookies. But Thrifty Nickel, I just have to consider
our grocery stores by laying out their stores this way
of doing us a favor. Um, I need a little
more information and I can't make a judgment call them
(12:22):
that yet. So I was looking at this Women's health article.
It's called how Manolo's Can Save Your Life. And you
may not like this, Thrifty Nickel, but the article says yes.
The article talks about how great shopping makes you feel.
It only talks about that pain, that pleasure center while
ignoring the role of the insula. And it basically says
that by activating that pleasure center so much, you're just
(12:45):
releasing endorphins all throughout your body. You're gonna be in
great shape because of it. You're gonna be happier because
of it. Essentially, you're making the world a better place
because not only are you buying something nice for yourself,
you're helping out that lady in the shop. You know,
You're it's gonna be great. You're gonna stay active, You're
gonna stay shopping. Yea consumerism alright, Molly, I mean I
I I buy that there is an innate connection between
(13:09):
pleasurable shopping and uh, you know, emotions and all the
positive effects of that and and that's fantastic. But Molly,
how how pleasurable and how how good for your brain
is it going to be? When you get your credit
card bill in the mail six weeks later and our
two thousand dollars in debt? That's true, You're gonna have
(13:32):
to cancel your subscription to Women's Health magazine, which is
who told you to do that? In the first, lay, Um,
so let's go to a more reasonable source. I suppose
we'll go to the Boston Globe, which was also talking
about the experiment that we talked about at the beginning
of the podcast with the with the two parts of
the brain that are in conflict whenever it was the
(13:52):
cumbents and the insula. Nice, so whenever you are deciding something,
that's the deliberation that's going on in there. And they
give us some hips on how to overcome the battle
to win our battle against our credit card debt. Okay,
cognition over emotion, yes, um, to say nothing of the hormones.
But first and foremost researchers say, you've got to stop
(14:15):
using your credit card. It's too um, it's too easy
to do. You don't have that sense of guilt when
you have to like just swipe something that you will
if you're counting out your cold heart cash, right, there's uh,
there's actual pain kind of associated with just seeing the
cash leaving your hands or your nickels or your nickels. Um,
(14:35):
I should probably stop mentioning that as much as I am,
or you won't tell me any more deep dark secret um,
but yeah, you have to And internet that's why internet
shopping is the worst. This is what I do and
I feel bad. I just go online, go to Amazon,
one click away, one click away, and you're done. So
don't shop online. Actually go to the god of store.
And you do need to know your feelings. Do you
(14:55):
shop more when you're sad? Um? Even men tend to,
you know, shop when they're sad. Yeah. I only shop
if I'm in a shopping mood, and a lot of
times I think it probably is more correlated if I'm
feeling kind of down, I need a new shirt or
something to douce my my steam a little bit. Yeah,
you're trying to activate that pleasure center and if you're
(15:18):
but if you can't, just be happy and go shopping.
Because I was reading that if your pleasure centers are activated,
you're like on a roll. For example, the Boston Globe
talks about how men who had just looked at erotic
pictures were more likely to shop for more because they
are I had the pleasure center turned on and they
didn't want to turn it off. Well, so don't look
(15:39):
at erotic pictures. So before you go shopping lesson number
two important tip of the day. Well, Molly one one
thing that you also have to avoid. If we're talking
about tips for overcoming this this instinct a shop is
avoiding the dressing room. Really, yes, An article in The
Economist magazine reported that if customers try something on, they
(16:04):
are they have a chance of actually buying it, as
opposed to a fifty eight percent chance of seeing if
they just like it on the rack. If you take
it in there, I mean, it's a commitment you have.
You've taken the time put it on, You've seen what
it's like, you're imagining the shoes that will go with
it as good as yours. Wow. All right, Well, one
more tip for you, don't buy so much in one store.
(16:27):
Don't go into that dressing room with twenty things to
try on, because then, like Kristen said, you're probably gonna
walk out with ten and it's not gonna be such
a big deal that you're buying so much anymore. Whereas
if you buy, you know, ten dollar thing there and
a ten dollar thing there, you notice more that you
keep pulling out the credit card. Right, Just from experience,
I think there's definitely a sort of a threshold of shopping.
For instance, I went shopping for makeup last weekend, and
(16:50):
makeup is really easy for me to buy because it's
very small. A lot of times it will cost less
than thirty dollars. So I went in, you know, I
was looking for some the mess gara and I was like,
all right, I got this. Then I saw an eyeliner pencil. Okay,
all these things I can hold in my hand. By
the time I left, I had like five things. Yeah,
you've gotta keep moving. But don't I look facuse Yes,
(17:13):
I do. Wish you could see Kristin. But Kristen, this
is a specific tip for you. It's give me our
last one. And it's specifically for those of us who
do try to be thrifting nickels every now and then.
And that is you have to be aware of bargains
sometimes because the lower price makes you think that you
can't do anything wrong. It makes you think you can't
go wrong. You've got to buy it's a bargain. I
(17:34):
have made many many erroneous thrift store purchases. Yes, So
you've got to not let your insula. You know, we
talked a lot about combining that pleasure center. But you
also can't let your insula just guilt you into buying
things because they're good deals. If you don't need it,
you don't need it, but you know what you do need.
Molly what more information about the brain and shopping. So
(17:55):
if you would like to learn more about all of
this and read the article is my brain making Me
buy things that I don't need? By Julia Layton, you
can go to how stuff works dot com and if
you have any questions or comments for me and Molly,
you can email us at mom stuff at how stuff
works dot com for moralness and thousands of other topics.
(18:20):
Because it how stuff works dot com brought to you
by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are
you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stop? Mom? Never told
you from housetop works dot com. Hey thereon, Welcome to
the podcast. This is Kristen, This is Molly. Molly, as promised,
(00:23):
UM and I honored this podcast. I'm going to tell
you a nickname of mine, given to me by by
a boyfriend that you probably have never never heard. No,
I've been promised this anecdote for today. It's not too revolutionary,
but Molly, Um, I am in some circles known as
the thrifty nickel. Oh, it's so adorable. Yeah, it's kind
(00:46):
of adorable. But also, um, it's sort of an insult
because I really don't like spending money. I'm you could
say I'm a little bit of a tight watz apply. Yeah.
I like to shop, but I shop alone. I go
for things. I'm kind of like, you know, like a hunter.
I can see it, get it, leave. I'm not a
person to go try on fifty dresses and see which
(01:09):
one I like. If I don't like it on the rack,
I'm leaving. Any better be coming with me? Do you
um have guilt when you shop. Is that what kind
of makes you a Thrifty Nickel buyer's remorse, Yes, it's
it's a big problem. Um, if I don't, if I
don't feel like I'm getting a good bargain on something,
I will probably be back in that store returning the
item in the following week. So you do buy the item.
(01:32):
Sometimes it depends. Uh, it more depends on my mood.
But a lot of times I'll just avoid shopping all together.
And unless I know that there's some kind of big
sale going on. Well, this all leads us into the
idea of I'm sure Kristen is not the only Thrifty
Nickel listening today. Um. And but on the other hand,
you know, we talk about female issues on this podcast,
(01:53):
and one of the big female stereotypes is that girls
love to shop. Um, you know, and maybe you really
actually kind Do you love to shop and you like
the reward of getting a big deal? Oh? Absolutely, I
mean there's nothing like finding a fair boots that are
fifty percent off. I mean I love it. I feel
like I want a marathon or something. Right, And so,
you know, we're just bombarded with these images and movies
(02:14):
and TV of like the girls loaded down with bags.
And what's kind of interesting is that the reason I
was asking Christen about guilt is that scientists have hooked
our brains up to machines and tried to figure out
why we buy what we buy and how that makes
us feel. And what we're gonna get into later is
that this totally affects the way that people market goods
(02:35):
and services to women. And I like talking about that
stereotype about women shopping. I think that women and men
certainly shop in a different way, and we shop four
different things. I think I saw in the Wall Street
Journal yesterday that in terms of retail items, women's shop
on a one to three year cycle, or as men
wal shop on a ten year cycle. So they buy
We buy clothes for a season. Men buy clothes for
(02:57):
years to come. But as a matter of fact, according
to the American Journal of Psychiatry, men are just as
likely to shop compulsively as we are. They just might
be more reluctant to to let anyone know about that
their secret, their secret. Shame. Yeah, So I think that
we should talk about how just a brain, male, female, whatever,
(03:19):
how our brain processes shopping, right, because if you learn
from this podcast that you can blame all your shopoholic
nature's or your thirty nickel natures on your brain. You know,
that might make it easier easier stomach. Okay, so let's
start off. We've got an article called is my brain
making me buy things I don't need? And it revolves
(03:40):
around the study. Research was published in January two thousand
seven UH and the journal Neuron that UH shows that
when we spend, it's because things are going on in
our brain that we have no control over whatsoever. Right,
there are all these cognitive functions that are going on,
but they're also emotional issue us attached to shopping and
(04:03):
actually purchasing something. And when the researchers hooked participants up
to an f M R I machine, they found that
an area of the brain called the nucleus incumbents lights
up when we see something that we like and want
to buy. Now, this section near the middle of the
(04:24):
brain is associated with our rewards center. If we see
something that we like and then we we have it,
will feel a sense of reward like I do when
I buy bargain sweaters or whatever it might be. UM
and then once once we see the price, are an
area in our brain called the mesiol prefrontal cortex lights
(04:47):
up in this region the brain is known for higher
executive functions, and it seems like the when when this
part of the brain lights up, it's like we're trying
to decide whether or not what we're looking at is
worth the actual cost of it, and then the actual
decision of whether or not we're going to purchase that
(05:07):
handbag or pair of boots or whatever happens in the
insula and depending on whether or not we buy it,
it will it will light up. Right. So, how this
all worked in practice was when the people went into
the MRI machine, they were handed forty dollars in cash.
They've guide in their hand, it's there is to spend,
(05:27):
and then they're shown images of these things that you know,
they can decide to buy or not. They can push
a yes no button and say yeah, I want that,
and then at the end of the experiment, the prices
were subtracted from their forty dollars and the change was theirs.
So before people even push the yes no button, scientists
could tell what they were going to pick based on
(05:48):
whether that part that Christmas talking about the insula lit up. Um.
The insula is just sort of be no, you're it's
kind of like your no button. Basically, if you're insula
lit up, then you decide not to buy the product
because as the ends didn't justify the means, um, but
if it didn't light up, then you were like bye
bye bye. And it's interesting because the insula is sort
(06:09):
of the opposite of the brain's pleasure center. It's more
associated with with pain and regret. So if the insula
is lighting up and you go ahead and buy it anyway,
you know, you might feel horribly guilty about it, but
it's very unconscious. You definitely haven't felt the pain yet.
You can just sort of, you know, party brains anticipating
that there will be pain because this is happening so fast.
(06:30):
I mean when they were flashing these images on the
screen and then the price that was happening all within
maybe ten seconds. Oh, I would bet less, but I
mean I have no time on the matter. But anyway,
it is happening very fast, which is why, um, you
don't want to be making quick spur of the moment purchases.
That's how you get of you know, you don't give
(06:51):
your brain time to do all it's deliberating and this
action that happens in the brain is something that behavioral
economists called trans action utility. Yes, and that's the measure
of whether or not what we are getting is going
to be a good deal and therefore pleasurable, or if
we're going to um be spending too much than we
(07:13):
should and we'll be experiencing pain from it. Now, so experimently,
just described works for males or females. Everyone has this
going on in their brain when they go shopping. But
the reason it really relates to females in particular is
that women buy more. You know, we are in charge
of a lot more household purchases. Um, we have the
stereotype that we'd like to go buy clothes and you know,
(07:35):
you know, throw off an afternoon that way. So, knowing
this about everyone's brains, there's a field called neuroeconomics that
goes even deeper into a female brain to say, what
else can we learn about a female's brain that will
influence how she buys things? Right? And there was an
article in The New York Times um talking about how
(07:58):
snorro economics applied to you a new advertising campaign by
Freedo Lay Company. They know that women snack more often
than men, but for some reason, women were not going
for Lay's products. They were eating other things. And they
also knew, as we were talking before that that women
were experiencing all of this guilt associated with snacking, so
(08:19):
they wanted to develop these Uh so they wanted to
develop an ad campaign specifically targeting women to get them
to acknowledge the guilt, but go ahead and buy some
freed A Lay products anyway. Right. They knew that based
on MRI scans, that women were relied more on the
emotional side of their brain when making choices. So they're like, Okay,
(08:44):
women have all this guilt when they eat snacks. Um.
They don't want to say just guilt free, because you
know that still implies that guilt could be had. But
the new packaging talks about how it's just so good
for you. Yeah, and and the commercials are very like, hey, gals,
we know what it's like. You're at the gym and
you're hungry and you're all sweaty. Why don't you just
(09:04):
open up a bag of sonships because you're acknowledging that
you're doing something good for you. Like, you're gonna start
seeing lots of packaging. Um that emphasizes the healthy ingredients,
puts that on the forefront as opposed to zero calories,
which reminds you about calories altogether. They're going to bypass
that and go straight to like, oh don't you love
all natural products? And and these little animated female characters
(09:27):
that they're using are meant to, like, you know, really
commiserate with with the women and the fake women in
in the ads. You got there, I've been there. I'm
just hungry. I just want to snack. And don't they
talk about I didn't realize they had accents in the commercial, Christen,
but don't they all my mind? Don't they also talk
about stuff, um like bras and shopping and all these
(09:51):
things that women supposedly love and want camaraderie with. Yeah,
it's kind of sex in the city on steroids in
a horrible way to make your b to make you
buy potato chips. Um. So that's just one very small
example of how they're using your brain to get to you. Um.
But Chris, and I know you brought some information in
about how they arrange grocery stores just to get you. Oh. Absolutely,
(10:14):
walk into any grocery store and you've got uh neuroeconomics
in its finest form. You know, uh, sorry, okay, what's uh? So,
the area immediately inside a supermarket where they usually place
(10:35):
a lot of displays and promotional items is called the
decompression zone, and this is really where, uh they want
you to just you know, take take in the store,
you know, start seeing things that you want to buy,
and then you move into fresh fruits and vegetables. And
this always bugs me, and I think it bugs a
lot of other people because if you buy your bananas
(10:57):
first and then you go buy you know, your can
be or whatever it is, your bananas are going to
get squashed. But the thinking behind this is that selecting
your good, wholesome fresh food is a good way to
start shopping. You're doing something good for yourself, so that
by the time you make your way to the middle
of the store and start running into oh, I don't know,
freedom a product or something like that, uh, you'll be
(11:19):
more willing to indulge a little bit. Yeah, you know,
you start off good, then you're like, oh, well, I
have fruit, I can have cookies too. And they put
the common items like milk and cheese and eggs and
things that most people just need to run in and
buy in the back of the store, so that you
have to walk through other aisles of food that you
that you wouldn't normally walk through. And this is all
(11:41):
to boost your dwell time or your time and your
store because the thinking goes that the longer you spend
at a store, the more likely you are to buy more.
And so you're and plus I would bet I mean,
there's no research on this, but I bet your brain
gets tired. We were talking earlier about you know, these
trains actions that are happening in our brain between pain
(12:02):
and pleasure. By the time you get to the cookie,
I'll I don't know if your brain could still handle that.
Mine can't mind gets overloaded at the grocery store as
the cookies. But Thrifty Nickel, I just have to consider
our grocery stores by laying out their stores this way
of doing us a favor. Um, I need a little
more information and I can't make a judgment call them
(12:22):
that yet. So I was looking at this Women's health article.
It's called how Manolo's Can Save Your Life. And you
may not like this, Thrifty Nickel, but the article says yes.
The article talks about how great shopping makes you feel.
It only talks about that pain, that pleasure center while
ignoring the role of the insula. And it basically says
that by activating that pleasure center so much, you're just
(12:45):
releasing endorphins all throughout your body. You're gonna be in
great shape because of it. You're gonna be happier because
of it. Essentially, you're making the world a better place
because not only are you buying something nice for yourself,
you're helping out that lady in the shop. You know,
You're it's gonna be great. You're gonna stay active, You're
gonna stay shopping. Yea consumerism alright, Molly, I mean I
I I buy that there is an innate connection between
(13:09):
pleasurable shopping and uh, you know, emotions and all the
positive effects of that and and that's fantastic. But Molly,
how how pleasurable and how how good for your brain
is it going to be? When you get your credit
card bill in the mail six weeks later and our
two thousand dollars in debt? That's true, You're gonna have
(13:32):
to cancel your subscription to Women's Health magazine, which is
who told you to do that? In the first, lay, Um,
so let's go to a more reasonable source. I suppose
we'll go to the Boston Globe, which was also talking
about the experiment that we talked about at the beginning
of the podcast with the with the two parts of
the brain that are in conflict whenever it was the
(13:52):
cumbents and the insula. Nice, so whenever you are deciding something,
that's the deliberation that's going on in there. And they
give us some hips on how to overcome the battle
to win our battle against our credit card debt. Okay,
cognition over emotion, yes, um, to say nothing of the hormones.
But first and foremost researchers say, you've got to stop
(14:15):
using your credit card. It's too um, it's too easy
to do. You don't have that sense of guilt when
you have to like just swipe something that you will
if you're counting out your cold heart cash, right, there's uh,
there's actual pain kind of associated with just seeing the
cash leaving your hands or your nickels or your nickels. Um,
(14:35):
I should probably stop mentioning that as much as I am,
or you won't tell me any more deep dark secret um,
but yeah, you have to And internet that's why internet
shopping is the worst. This is what I do and
I feel bad. I just go online, go to Amazon,
one click away, one click away, and you're done. So
don't shop online. Actually go to the god of store.
And you do need to know your feelings. Do you
(14:55):
shop more when you're sad? Um? Even men tend to,
you know, shop when they're sad. Yeah. I only shop
if I'm in a shopping mood, and a lot of
times I think it probably is more correlated if I'm
feeling kind of down, I need a new shirt or
something to douce my my steam a little bit. Yeah,
you're trying to activate that pleasure center and if you're
(15:18):
but if you can't, just be happy and go shopping.
Because I was reading that if your pleasure centers are activated,
you're like on a roll. For example, the Boston Globe
talks about how men who had just looked at erotic
pictures were more likely to shop for more because they
are I had the pleasure center turned on and they
didn't want to turn it off. Well, so don't look
(15:39):
at erotic pictures. So before you go shopping lesson number
two important tip of the day. Well, Molly one one
thing that you also have to avoid. If we're talking
about tips for overcoming this this instinct a shop is
avoiding the dressing room. Really, yes, An article in The
Economist magazine reported that if customers try something on, they
(16:04):
are they have a chance of actually buying it, as
opposed to a fifty eight percent chance of seeing if
they just like it on the rack. If you take
it in there, I mean, it's a commitment you have.
You've taken the time put it on, You've seen what
it's like, you're imagining the shoes that will go with
it as good as yours. Wow. All right, Well, one
more tip for you, don't buy so much in one store.
(16:27):
Don't go into that dressing room with twenty things to
try on, because then, like Kristen said, you're probably gonna
walk out with ten and it's not gonna be such
a big deal that you're buying so much anymore. Whereas
if you buy, you know, ten dollar thing there and
a ten dollar thing there, you notice more that you
keep pulling out the credit card. Right, Just from experience,
I think there's definitely a sort of a threshold of shopping.
For instance, I went shopping for makeup last weekend, and
(16:50):
makeup is really easy for me to buy because it's
very small. A lot of times it will cost less
than thirty dollars. So I went in, you know, I
was looking for some the mess gara and I was like,
all right, I got this. Then I saw an eyeliner pencil. Okay,
all these things I can hold in my hand. By
the time I left, I had like five things. Yeah,
you've gotta keep moving. But don't I look facuse Yes,
(17:13):
I do. Wish you could see Kristin. But Kristen, this
is a specific tip for you. It's give me our
last one. And it's specifically for those of us who
do try to be thrifting nickels every now and then.
And that is you have to be aware of bargains
sometimes because the lower price makes you think that you
can't do anything wrong. It makes you think you can't
go wrong. You've got to buy it's a bargain. I
(17:34):
have made many many erroneous thrift store purchases. Yes, So
you've got to not let your insula. You know, we
talked a lot about combining that pleasure center. But you
also can't let your insula just guilt you into buying
things because they're good deals. If you don't need it,
you don't need it, but you know what you do need.
Molly what more information about the brain and shopping. So
(17:55):
if you would like to learn more about all of
this and read the article is my brain making Me
buy things that I don't need? By Julia Layton, you
can go to how stuff works dot com and if
you have any questions or comments for me and Molly,
you can email us at mom stuff at how stuff
works dot com for moralness and thousands of other topics.
(18:20):
Because it how stuff works dot com brought to you
by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are
you
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Samantha McVey
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.