Oct 2, 2010 10:04 GMT  ·  By

A team of scientists has recently discovered that people who are less included in groups tend to spare no expense in making themselves fit in, and for feeling accepted.

The finding suggests new marketing strategies for companies looking to boost their profit, in the sense that they could gain more of a market share by making their clients feel as if they belong to something.

Economic analysts say that the best example in this direction is Apple, which manages to keep many of its customers based solely on this feeling. Many of their products have flaws and lapses that would otherwise not be accepted by customers.

In other words, what the team determined is that people will reach deep into their pockets, and spend sums of money that they don't actually have, in order to feel included in a larger group.

They also spend a lot on forging new friendships, the investigation shows, as well as on bonding with the “right crowd, LiveScience reports.

“The desire to feel included is highly ingrained and extremely powerful. Some big companies such as Apple are extremely successful in part because they make the customer feel like they ‘belong’,” says Nicole Mead.

She is the main author of a new study detailing the findings, which appears in the latest issue of the esteemed journal of Consumer Research.

Mead holds an appointment as a research scientist at the Tilburg University, in the Netherlands.

The expert also found that, in the minds of those not included in many groups, social acceptance can become a lot more important than their own personal and financial well-being.

“One of the take-home messages from this work is that advertisements that are aimed at people who are chronically lonely or temporarily so might want to include the notion that their products or services can bring them new friends,” explains Kathleen Vohs.

“Marketing messages that give the idea that ‘everyone is doing it’ will be highly persuasive,” adds Vohs, who is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota, and also a researcher on the new study.

Among the worrying findings the study made is that many people who feel lonely can engage in harmful behaviors, such as for example eating foods they don't like, or doing drugs, just because they want to fit in.