Kathleen D. Vohs and Ronald J. Faber (University of Minnesota) point out that opportunities for impulse purchasing have increased with the proliferation of ATMs, shopping on the Internet, and shop-at-home television programs. Instead of gauging desire for things, they are the first to measure actual spending patterns after the exertion of self-control, expanding the literature to include the impulse to buy.

For example, the researchers explore the effects of mental self control in an experiment that asked a group of participants to write down all their thoughts for six minutes. Another group was told that they should also write down all their thoughts – with one exception. The participants were told that if they thought of "a white bear" they were NOT to write it down, but instead to place a check mark at the side of their paper.

The participants were then told that they were taking place in an unrelated study and given $10 to spend on items from the college bookstore. They were told that whatever unspent money was theirs to keep.

Even a small regulatory exercise – the attempt to suppress an innocuous thought about a white bear – caused the participants who had exercised mental self-control to spend and buy more. Those who had just tried to control their thoughts spent an average of $4.05. Those who had been free to write whatever they wanted spent an average of $1.21. Participants who had previously been asked to exercise self-control also bought twice as many items on average as members of the unregulated group.

"Overall, the research shows that people need self-regulatory resources to resist impulse buying temptations, and that these resources can be depleted by prior self-control efforts," write the researchers. "As a result, people should avoid shopping on days when they have earlier exercised great self-control or when starting a new self-improvement program, such as a new diet."

Source: University of Chicago