SOUL + BODY: Sad? Stay Out of the Mall

William James pointed out in 1890 that “misery is not miserly” and scam artists have always targeted the sad. Now scientists from Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, and Stanford are getting closer to understanding why sad people are so willing to part with their money.
In their experiment (see Psychological Science, June 2008), participants viewed either a sad video clip or one devoid of human emotion. Afterward, they could purchase a water bottle at various prices. Participants randomly assigned to the sad video clip were willing to spend three times as much money for the bottle as were “neutral” participants. Even more surprising, those in the sad group typically insisted, albeit incorrectly, that the emotional content of the film clip did not affect their spending.
The researchers also tested the level of self-focus in both groups. Among participants “primed” to feel sad, those who were highly self-focused paid more money than those low in self-focus. Why might a combination of sadness and self-focus lead people to spend more money? First, sadness and self-focus cause one to devalue both one’s sense of self and one’s current possessions. Second, this devaluation increases a person’s willingness to pay more for new material goods, presumably to enhance the sense of self.
As James wrote, “a man’s Self is the sum total of all that he CAN call his, not only his body and his psychic powers, but his clothes and his house . . .” When that self is shrunk by sadness, shopping therapy may feel good, but it'll likely be very expensive.

Stephen Kiesling