Finding a good bargain is a fact that our brain likes, which is why when a major sales period arrives, like Black Friday, many people go hunting for that product as if their life depended on it. This has a scientific explanation: finding reduced prices generates a chemical response in our brain that urges us to buy something, says Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, professor of Consumer Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, in an article in The Conversation.
As he explains, “when we see the price on a label and perceive it as a good deal, the part of our brain that deals with pleasure (the nucleus accumbens)”. In short, consumers experience a high level of satisfaction when they find and buy a bargain.
This brain area, along with other reward-related brain regions, also plays a role in emotional processing, largely in combination with dopaminea neurotransmitter that helps control the reward and pleasure centers of the brain, and is associated with happiness.
In this sense, Jansson-Boyd indicates that when people see images of things they want to buy, the region of the brain with dopamine receptors is activated, and they receive their “dose” when they buy, so they “feel good about what they buy.” are doing.” To this we must add that dopamine makes people be more impulsive when making decisions, so it is easy to understand the widespread enthusiasm for discounts.
To this we must add other factors that increase the excitement of searching for a good offer. Among other purchasing strategies used is offering discounted products. for short periods of timewhich causes an additional sense of urgency. “This generates even higher levels of adrenaline that makes people giddy with excitement at the prospect of getting a bargain, and is one of the reasons we see deals tied to a particular day, week or month,” like Black Friday.
A similar effect occurs when a website has a countdown timeras it makes consumers feel that they stand to lose something if they do not act immediately.
Faced with these tactics that incite unbridled consumerism, this expert gives the key to “resist biological impulses and restrain oneself so as not to fall” into these offers, although, like everything, requires self-control.
“When you see a discounted product, don’t give in to temptation and buy it instantly. Take your time to decide“he advises.
“If you’re physically in the store and you’re worried about someone else buying it, take the item and walk with it for a while through the store. Over time, the urgency of your initial reaction will diminish. And as the rush calms down, you’ll probably feel less compelled to buy it,” he suggests.
The same procedure is recommended to be carried out when purchasing online. “Stop for a moment, step away from the screen and do something else for a while so the urge to buy a bargain diminishes a little,” he adds.
In the words of this expert, “no matter how big the discount is,” she says, “you may end up realizing that it is not so essential for your life as your brain initially thought,” he concludes.
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