For some of us, the loud advertisements promoting a 50% price cut, the one-day sale, as well as the eliminations for some commodities, are not much different from the warning signals for drug addicts that they need another dose.
The feeling of winning shopping on discount day is no different from alcohol, drugs or even food, medical experts say. Even those whose cases have not been diagnosed with what is known as a real “compulsive purchasing disorder” can experience a similar impulse. For that reason, even the average shopper finds it a real challenge to exercise restraint in the process of purchasing.
In fact, we usually decide to buy something in a fraction of a second, without much rational thinking, says Kunyong Oh, an associate professor at the University of Buffalo in New York State, who specializes in neuromarketing, a discipline that tracks consumer behavior through neuroscience.
An expert who studies brainwaves to track the hidden bursts in our emotions, says we don’t use a logical balancing process for results when it comes to luring price-reduction cards; instead, “most of our decisions to buy something we make right away.”
He adds that we don’t use the usual balancing process of results as we do in the workplace, because these kinds of emotional decisions are often made unconsciously because of the composition of the human brain.
In fact, sometimes we say to ourselves: we need more, we have to get more, we have to go back to get more. If all of this seems out of control, it may not be the case. The main thing here is the need to understand what happens to us when we have a desire to shop.
