Why you're hooked on shopping

Do you ever come to the end of a shopping expedition, examine your purchases and wonder what on earth made you buy them? You’re not alone. There are so many factors that drive the way we shop that it’s a miracle we ever come home with anything we like or need at all.

Read our insights to understand the tricks retailers and advertisers use to persuade us to part with our cash — and learn when to leave your credit card at home.

You’re more likely to buy a sexy outfit when: you’re ovulating
But you’re even more likely to purchase a sexy outfit when you’re at your peak fertility and aware of attractive female rivals.

Kristina Durante, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota, had ovulating women check out an online shop and list the 10 items they’d be most likely to choose. As expected, they veered towards sexy. However, that preference was even more marked when the women were first shown photographs of attractive women who lived in their area.

When they were shown less attractive rivals or women who lived more than 2000km away, there was no real surge in ovulation-based spending.

Durante believes that 'the hormonal changes associated with fertility heighten female sensitivity to same-sex competition'.

The take-away: If your local fashion retailer or make-up counter suddenly starts employing excessively sexy sales staff, you’ll know why.

Success can lead us to buy flashy items
Different positive emotions can have drastically different effects on what we buy. A study by a team from Minnesota and Arizona universities found that when people felt proud of an achievement such as passing an exam, they bought items they could put on public display, such as flashy watches, frocks and shoes.

However, say the researchers, 'when people felt contentment, they were more attracted to products such as beds, dishwashers and clothes for lounging around the house in.'

The take-away: You can celebrate success with smaller ticket items like jeans – and you’ll get more wear out of them.

Emotional woes make us spend more
What do you do when you’re depressed? Go shopping? You’re not alone. A survey by Professor Karen Pine, from the University of Hertfordshire, found that 79 percent of women will go on a spending spree to cheer themselves up. Pine points out that retail therapy is a way for these women to regulate intense emotions and desensitise themselves from their dissatisfaction with life — including lack of money.

The problem is that once they’ve established shopping as an emotional habit, they often feel the need to spend even when they can’t afford to.

The take-away: Recognise that binge shopping can be a reaction to turmoil, so monitor your finances and shopping trends and next time you find yourself getting upset, get professional help, call a friend or exercise, rather than buy that new handbag.

Hooked? Get the best prices online.

For the full story, see the January issue of Good Health. Subscribe to 12 issues of Good Health for just $49.95 (that's a saving of $33.45 on the retail price) and and go into the draw to WIN one of 10 fabulous Hawaiian holiday packages, valued at over $12,000 each! The perfect Christmas gift!