You don’t need them, but you’ll buy them

In-store advertising may be gaining stature as a societal ill, along with transfat and tobacco. Apparently, those promotions and sales signs that greet you the minute you enter a store could, believe it or not, cause you to make some unsound impulse buys, judging by new research from MIT. That’s good news for marketers and maybe too for people who thought their immoderate shopping habits were purely a result of their stunted emotional condition. Sure, some earlier have studies linked rampant shopping to self-esteem issues, but this story says impulse buys are often driven more by a simple neurological response in the brain. In other words, some people are just hard-wired to shop til they drop. Are you one of them? Click on the link—there’s a quiz that’ll help you find out.

—Posted by Kathleen Sampey

June 20, 2006 | Permalink