The Psychology of Spending | Part 2: The Dopamine Hit
It feels good doesn’t it?
You are walking through your favorite store, looking at all the things that should rightfully be in your home. Your walk slows, you give each item a long look and a feel. The anticipation builds within you. As if there is some psychic connection between the sensors in your fingers and one of the credit cards in your wallet/handbag, you can almost visualize the swipe of your card as the cashier places your coveted items in the shopping bag. You walk out of the store, new possession in hand, and can’t wait to get them home to try them on, take some pictures, pose in the mirror, and plan the outing or event where this new article will make you looking like a royal walking among vassals.
Pure elation.
“Behold, minions. A Royal walks among you!”
Wow. I guess that’s one way to describe it.
There is a reason I use the over-dramatic description above. Whether you realize it or not, your brain goes through this process, or one similar to it, when you go shopping. Regardless of your specific shopping ritual, the end state is the same. A massive dopamine rush in your brain that tells you, “this feels so good.”
Although we often associate the feeling as a result of the transaction, Susan Weinschenk Ph.D. argues that the neurotransmitter process and the dopamine hit is released immediately… well before we swipe the card. Worse still, she highlights how psychological studies show that the dopamine release is even stronger when the reward is presented only 50% of the time.
That’s right folks, when you do that thing you call ‘window shopping,’ because its harmless and you are just looking, you are actually feeding into the dopamine release process.
According to Alina Dizik, writing for the BBC, “Shopping a sale gives you the same feeling as getting high.” Interesting here that her research revealed that shopping activates the same brain centers as do drugs. Later in her article she posits that, “The feeling of winning at shopping a sale is not unlike the addiction to alcohol, drugs or even food.” Well, turns out, shopping is worse… damn.
In Part 1, we talked about the Magic of Advertising. Specifically the tricks corporations use to make you spend your $$$.
Houston, we have a freakin’ problem.
What we understand now is that spending is not just something that someone simply likes, they are addicted.
But there is something at the heart of the matter when this is framed so simplistically. When researchers at Columbia University dug deeper into the psychology of this phenomenon, they found something surprising, according to a 2005 CBS News report. There is a lack of personal self-worth.
Ouch.
The reason shopping feels so good is because people believe, although they don’t acknowledge it, that obtaining these new thing increases their worth or personal value. Our society has beaten us down so much that we feel as if we lack value unless we are constantly buying those new things.
But the aforementioned high doesn’t last. That feeling like you are on top of the world fades. The brain is coming down off of the dopamine hit and you find yourself, like a drug addict, rationalizing when you need to go to the store… just to window shop of course.
The cycle begins anew. You get yourself ready to go out, get in your car, drive like you can’t get to the store fast enough, and the hunt begins. You found it! The newest dress, shoes, car, jewelry, tool, kitchen item, etc. Dopamine drop, activated.
Your financial plans and bank account weep…
“Son, you are not your possessions.”
- Lamare’s Father
I consider myself fortunate to have been raised by my father. He was old school in almost every way, but he took the time to share his wisdom with me and my brothers. Because of this, I never got caught up in the idea that my personal worth or value was anchored in my possessions. Not an easy feat in today’s society where we are constantly reminded that we ‘need’ the newest version of everything to be apart of the in group.
Here is where the hard part comes in.
I personally believe, as in Part 1 of this series, that knowledge is the great equalizer. What if you understood what was happening in your mind when your shopping itch started up?
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
- Hosea 4:6
It’s time for a change of our perspective here, folks. You have worth and you have value. You don’t need those new things. New things don’t increase your worth or value. As my late father would say, “you are not your possessions.”
What does this mean? Your possessions are things. That’s it. The only value or worth they have is what we give them. You are not more important than anyone else because you have a Mercedes Benz, a 5,000 square foot home, the newest pair of designer shoes/sneakers, or a diamond ring that is equal to several mortgage payments. What you are really saying, without knowing it, is without those new things you are nothing.
It’s time to reevaluate our view of what is actually important in our lives.
As if we are collectively in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, let’s just say it. “My name is ________ and I have a problem.” “Spending makes me feel good about myself.”
I want you to understand that just like the magic of advertising in Part 1, this dopamine induced high is also an illusion.
Go sober, and celebrate it.
