14 DAY TRIAL // The next time you rack up debt by buying one too many pairs of shoes, purses or whatever it is that makes you happy, just blame your stomach for it. No, really, you can even use science to turn your stomach into your favorite scapegoat every time you go on a shopping spree.
By the looks of it, shopping while hungry makes people crave not just for all sorts of tasty treats but also cosmetics, clothes, electronics and many other things that, although not edible, miraculously appear more attractive to folks with an empty stomach.
Studying how hunger influences shopping behavior
Looking to determine how having an empty stomach can influence an individual's shopping behavior, specialist Alison Jing Xu with the Carlson School of Management in the US and colleagues carried out a series of experiments with the help of volunteers.
On one occasion, they had people who had not eaten for 4 hours, together with fully satiated folks, ask for as many binder clips as they wanted or believed they might need. Another experiment boiled down to setting a group of volunteers loose inside a mall and keeping tabs on their purchases.
During the first of these experiments, the hungry volunteers requested an average 70% more binder clips, Science Daily informs. What's more, the guys and gals sent to shop on an empty stomach ended up spending 64% more money than the study participants who ate before visiting the mall.
A possible explanation for why hunger turns us into avid buyers
Researcher Alison Jing Xu explains that, when hungry, the majority of people can't help but become focused on finding, obtaining and eating food. Not that we needed a scientist to point this out, but let's go with it.
The specialist goes on to argue that, every once in a while, it can happen that these thoughts that we have about food when hungry remain, except that they are no longer about hamburgers, pizza or the like, but about anything that is up for sale.
As Alison Jing Xu put it, “Hunger makes us think about seeking, acquiring, and consuming food. The acquisition-related thoughts can spill over and put us in a mode of also getting nonfood items even though they are incapable of satisfying our hunger.”
The good news is that, if you don't want to spend all your hard-earned money in one week, maybe even less, there is one very simply solution to this faulty wiring in our brain: just don't go shopping on an empty stomach.