Depression & spending
The depressed it seems tend to spend more.
Why?
One idea is that feeling blue causes people to have a devalued sense of self, so spending more money on a new object — which people may identify, in a way, as an extension of themselves — starts to undo that deflation. That same emotional hunger may help to explain other costly behaviors, like aggressively playing the stock market or prowling for a new romance.
But there might be another way, too. It was also revealed that there seems to be a process mediating the link between sadness and spending. That process is self-focus. Being sad and focusing one's thoughts inwardly usually go hand in hand. But when the two were pried apart it was found that people who are sad, but not self-focused don't spend as much. To break the link, therefore, intentionally try to avoid self-focusing when one is sad simply by thinking of other people.
Read the complete article here.
Why?
One idea is that feeling blue causes people to have a devalued sense of self, so spending more money on a new object — which people may identify, in a way, as an extension of themselves — starts to undo that deflation. That same emotional hunger may help to explain other costly behaviors, like aggressively playing the stock market or prowling for a new romance.
But there might be another way, too. It was also revealed that there seems to be a process mediating the link between sadness and spending. That process is self-focus. Being sad and focusing one's thoughts inwardly usually go hand in hand. But when the two were pried apart it was found that people who are sad, but not self-focused don't spend as much. To break the link, therefore, intentionally try to avoid self-focusing when one is sad simply by thinking of other people.
Read the complete article here.
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