According to the British "Daily Mail" report, in 2016, the average British woman had 14 bags per person to use for different occasions, and the love of Chinese women for bags can not be lost to Great Britain. According to Data on Tmall Queen's Day, 350,000 Chinese women buy at least 12 bags a year. "Bag" cure seems to have become the tacit consensus of the center between girlfriends, why do women prefer to "buy bags"?
01
What makes women so addicted to "buying bags"
In ancient times, women were responsible for collecting (picking), men were responsible for attacking (hunting), whenever there was a collection activity, women took baskets or animal skins to go out, "bags" became a necessary daily necessities for women, and the pleasure brought by this division of labor has remained in the genes, creating a woman's love for bags.
Of course, this evolutionary psychological speculation can only explain that women like "bags", but it cannot explain why women always prefer expensive designer bags. In fact, women's liking for "expensive and useless" things also stems from the need for "love." A 2014 article gave evidence.
Extravagant clothing can make women feel "loved" | Figureworm creative
The researchers asked two groups of female participants to read each of the articles about "a woman and boyfriend at a party," which were mostly consistent, except that they differed in describing what the lady was wearing and wearing jewelry—the A version said she was wearing big-name goods (luxury goods), and the B version described it as ordinary goods. After the participants finished reading it, they needed to evaluate "how much do you think this boyfriend loves his girlfriend?" The results showed that the participants who read the version of wearing luxury goods felt that their boyfriends loved their girlfriends more.
In the second experiment, the researchers asked them to imagine another woman trying to grab your boyfriend — to see if that would inspire defensive shopping for women. The results showed that when participants felt that someone was competing with her for a boyfriend, they did initiate the luxury shopping motivation. It can be seen that from a psychological point of view, another important motivation for women to buy designer bags is to demonstrate to potential competitors - "See? He's willing to buy me luxury goods, but if you care about me, don't beat him up. ”
Asking your boyfriend to buy himself something may be a small trick to prove his love | Figureworm creative
Of course, there are many ways for women to get the emotional value brought by shopping, and in addition to bags, there are many goods that give women the feeling of being "loved". A study on "retail therapy" showed that in addition to bags, the top three items that women most often choose to buy are clothes, food, and shoes, while men prefer food, electronics, and movies/music.
At the same time, women are also more dependent on online channels for shopping, the survey shows that 67% of women mainly through online shopping to achieve stress reduction, ease of emotions, and this is mainly due to the online channel can be more convenient (stay at home, save commuting costs, etc.), comprehensive (various types of e-commerce platforms), to meet people under pressure or emotions, in a short period of time through shopping to heal the needs.
02
Buying, buying, buying is really an emotional healing
Of course, online shopping is more likely for women to fall into the strange circle of "impulse consumption" - things that they did not want to buy ended up in the shopping cart, or they knew that what they wanted to buy was not necessary, but still could not help but "chop their hands", why is this?
In fact, human beings are not a "rational animal" at all. Behind reason, it is the "unconscious dynamic" that drives our behavior, and even what we think of as "rational thinking." We can't control ourselves simply by willpower not drinking or buying bags, especially when there is a deep psychological meaning to this behavior. Psychologist Lance M. Dodes, in his book, specifically discusses the relationship between psychological helplessness and mental addiction: "When we produce feelings of emotional helplessness and being overwhelmed by emotions, we create tremendous anxiety. When people face anxiety, they will maintain a sense of control and emotional stability through specific self-regulation mechanisms. "And buying can play this regulatory role."
When you go to work, will your colleague suddenly take out your mobile phone and show you what new goods |? Figureworm creative
Rather than obtaining the use value of the item, the positive emotions brought about by consumption are more important "chopping" motivations. When shopping, people are in a relatively brainless state of relaxation. Therefore, when completing a complex and difficult task, shopping as a kind of "short break" can help the brain relax and regulate, improve the state to better find a solution to the difficulty. Especially online shopping. People can quickly take out their mobile phones to brush the e-commerce website between busy work, just like a mental stress relief and relaxation trip, which is lighter and more concise than real-life travel, and people do not need to pack their bags or plan carefully.
In addition, shopping is a process in which people constantly make their own choices (this does not include those who can't control their shopping addiction). After experiencing this process, people's inner sense of control over life will be enhanced. It can be seen that most of the time, buying things will indeed make our mood better, and shopping has a psychotherapy effect is not unfounded. The key to healing the heart by shopping is to understand your psychological needs and grasp the degree of purchase behavior.
03
Here comes the anti-chopping secret - the SOS law of rational consumption
Although consumption can bring us a pleasant experience, if we are carried away by consumerism for a long time and fall into the trap of "impulse purchase", it is not conducive to physical and mental health. If you want to calm down from the impulsive state in time, try the "SOS Law":
Psychological step back (S: stepback): disable one-click shopping (such as password-free payment and face brush shopping) in advance, give yourself more buffer time, and then clear your mind, breathe slowly, relax, and then stretch your body. Add what you want to buy to the shopping cart, delay the satisfaction, and then look back after six hours to see if you still want to buy;
O: Orientyourself to what you most deeply value and believe in: Think about what is most cherished, consciously think or imagine what is most important to you, clarify your normal consumption concepts and values, and connect with your "true self" . For example, imagine you have a bank account with some extra money in it, and you're going to save it for something or who;
As a price-sensitive consumer, you should consider the budget before buying | Figureworm creative
Self-check (S:Self-check): Find out how much financial pressure you have at the moment, give yourself a score, and then make a purchase decision after clarifying the level of pressure. As a precaution, you can also set up a special shopping wallet for yourself, transfer money from this every month, more than you can not advance, control your paws!
In addition to this, when what we want to buy is too expensive, we can fool our brains and make the brain think that we really own it by buying some cheap alternatives, which takes advantage of the vicarious ownership effect, psychologist Ian Zimmerman believes that when people are associated with a product, our brains begin to behave as if we already have the product. This connection can be a physical connection, such as touching it in front of a shelf. This connection can also be social, that is, seeing that others are using a certain product, which creates a comparative psychology, and of course, it can also be the possession of a substitute.
So, when you can't help but want to lose a Chanel, buying a COACH may also reduce your desire to spend.
bibliography:
Bailey, E. (2013). Retail therapy: Pros andCons of usingshopping to relieve stress. Health Central.
Baumgartner, J. (2011). Visualize it. Psychology Today.
Borreli, L. (2015). Confessions of ashopaholic: 7warning signs of shopping addiction and the personality traitsmost susceptible. Medicaldaily.
Gregoire, C. (2013). Retail therapy: One inthreerecently stressed Americans shop to deal with anxiety. Huffington Post.
Kacen, J. J. (1998). Retail therapy:Consumers’ shoppingcures for negative moods. In J. W. Alba & J. W.Hutchinson (Eds.), Advancesin consumer research (Vol. 25, pp. 75-87), Provo,UT: Association for ConsumerResearch.
Morad, R. (2012). Shopaholic: 7 Signs you’readdicted toshopping. Huffington Post.
Researchscape (2013). “Retail Therapy”: 64%of Women and40% of Men Shop to Improve Their Mood.
Nepomuceno,M.V. & Laroche, M. (2016). Do I feardeath? The effects of mortalitysalience on anti-consumption lifestyles. TheJournal of Consumer Affairs,124-144.
Author | Tang Yicheng Beijing Zhongkepu Mental Health Promotion Center
Audit | Fan Chunlei is an associate researcher at the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Edit | Jiang Fan
Editor-in-charge | Ding Song
This article is produced by the "Scientific Rumor Dispelling Platform" (ID: Science_Facts), please indicate the source when reprinting.
This article is from the copyright gallery of images and is not reproduced with permission.
You might want to see it
▽