Spent: New research explores why sadness makes us splurge

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Whether it actually works—that is, whether spending effectively reduces feelings of sadness—is still undetermined. But even if it does, feeling better could come at a hefty price.

“The amount of money implicated is not trivial,” Lerner says. “This is not just an ‘Oh, isn’t that interesting?’ finding. There are potentially massive implications.”

Americans currently spend 70 percent of their national income on consumer goods and services. Rates of consumer spending have increased steadily over the past 25 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and consumer debt in the United States now tops $2.5 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Board.

Ronald Dahl, a coauthor on the “Misery Is Not Miserly” study, suggests that sadness could be easily exploited by marketers, especially because its effects can snowball.

“Imagine some advertiser has conveyed to you that getting certain products may make you feel better,” he says. “Then the bills come due and you don’t feel better. You actually feel worse, because now you’re further in debt. That sadness then makes you willing to pay more.”

Dahl, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh, speculates that this “negative spiral” originates in the cultural myth that buying things for oneself makes one happy. But he points to research, such as a study published in March 2008 in Science, showing that when people spend money on others, they feel happier than when they spend it on themselves.

Perhaps the best way to address the sadness-spending effect, Dahl says, is to teach people, from a young age, that the path to personal fulfillment lies in generosity and altruism. That way, the feelings of devaluation brought on by sadness might spur a desire to give to others, avoiding the downward spiral brought on by indulging oneself.

“It’s basically a new pattern of thoughts, feelings, and actions together in the brain,” he says. “It means shifting away from self-focus toward being generous, giving to others—and discovering the rewards, in real emotional terms.”

Jason Marsh is editor in chief of Greater Good, a magazine about “the science of a meaningful life.” This article was excerpted from the Fall 2008 issue; www.greatergoodmag.org.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print