Why do we buy unnecessary things and how to stop

You go to the store for milk and bread, and go with shiny pink stilettos, hulahupom and two garden gnome. And this despite the fact that the heels are not yours, and you have no garden. We understand why this is happening.

Why we purchase useless things

We need fast fun

Everyone wants them was good. And the sooner, the better. Buying even unnecessary - is a surge of happiness, fast and affordable. The same as the food, on YouTube, Facebook and huskies in computer games.

Wanting to get a dose of joy here and now, we do not think about the long term and are willing to give up something more, if it still needs to wait. Therefore many so hard to save money: the car will buy at best a couple of years, but the set of 60 rolls arrive within half an hour. This, incidentally, is one of many cognitive trapsPreference reversal and delayed reinforcement - revaluation of discounts.

We become its victims because of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which transmits signals between neurons in the central nervous system. In addition, dopamine - an important part of the reward system. At first, the scientists decided to

Positive reinforcement produced by electrical stimulation of septal area and other regions of rat brainThat it is a joy and a pleasure.

Otherwise, why would the experimental rats at 100 times per hour to beat his current stimulating the production of dopamine? But later found outDissociation of reward anticipation and outcome with event-related fMRI - including by not too ethical to experiment on human beings - that happiness it does not work.

Dopamine is responsible for the sense of desire and anticipation. That is, only promises us pleasure, but does not give it.

Initially dopamine needed to force a person to act: to gather food, hunt, seek refuge, to seek sexual partners - in other words, to survive and procreate. But now, when I go, you can buy in a store close to home, dopamine, and the whole "reward system" plays into the hands of, not us, and marketers and creators of social networks.

We get excited by promises of pleasure - beautiful pictures, delicious smells, discounts, promotions and tastings - and attract the so-called dopamine loopDopamine, Smartphones & You: A battle for your time. Sounds menacing, huh? We enjoy, which promises even more fun, and we can not stop. Sticky hours on YouTube, opening roller for roller flows in supermarket card to another raking into cart soy sprouts, sports water bottles and notepads with seals.

Promotion of dopamine - one of the mechanisms of the limbic systemTime Discounting for Primary RewardsWhich is responsible for emotions. It is called a "hot" (as opposed to "cold" prefrontal cortex), because it responds to stimuli more rapidly than we can realize it.

We attract new items

"After the rebranding of the company will bring in more money," "The new technique will help you easily learn English! "," If you upgrade to the latest version, the phone will run faster! "," Buy our new washing machine! It erases better than the old, and even with it, you can send stories »-! All examples of the appeal of novelty - cognitive trap, because of which it seems that everything is new, be it an idea, method or smartphone, a priori better old.

That is the appeal of novelty makes us thoughtlessly swept away from the shelves gadgets chase clothes from the latest collections and throw things, because they allegedly are outdated.

In a similar trap when something caught even the French philosopher Denis Diderot. He bought a new gown - a luxury that all the other items of clothing on his background seemed too old. As a result, it has changed even furniture and paintings, so that they match the new thing.

And their suffering describedRegrets sur ma vieille robe de chambre in the essay "Sorry about my old robe": "My old coat completely in harmony with those around me trash," and now "the whole harmony is broken." "I was a complete master of his old coat and became a slave to the new." If there was something similar to you, know that you are a victim Diderot effect.

We depend on other people's opinions

In 1848, US presidential candidate Zachary Taylor usedBandwagon Effect for his campaign bandwagon. It was a success, Taylor became president, and his idea have adopted other policies. A expressionbandwagon effect "To jump into the bandwagon» (jump on the bandwagon) was in English stable. So talk about who wants to be part of the majority.

In another way, the trap can be called imitation effect, or the effect bandwagon. We want to be better than others, and for this we buy something that is at all - that is fashionable and popular.

This effect is clearly illustrated by line for the new iPhone. Or a group of teenagers in the same sneakers with multi-colored hair.

This is no surprise: we all thirst for social approval, and conformism - automaticFeatures of our economic behavior can be explained by the design of the brain reaction of the brain. Sometimes we, on the contrary, trying to stand out by buying something that no one (snob effectsnob effect) Or demonstrate its status with the help of very expensive items (Veblen effectBandwagon, Snob, and Veblen Effects in the Theory of Consumers' Demand). And this is also done for the sake of attention, acceptance and approval.

"If people give an opportunity to do what they like, they usually begin to mimic the actions of each other", - wrote the American philosopher Eric Hoffer. His thought repeats theoryBehavior of economic agents in the conditions of informational cascades information cascades.

When we choose to listen to the opinions of others, involuntarily we can start the information Cascade: people ignore their thoughts and needs and repeatedly make decisions, repeating behavior others. If someone made a mistake in this chain, one mistake leads to another. And all of this could lead to a collapse. For example, to a collapseAnalysis of information cascades theory on the stock exchange.

Something like watchingSolomon Asch - Conformity Experiment during his experiments psychologist Solomon Asch. The Panel proposes to compare the length of the lines in the two pictures. But the majority of the subjects were decoy ducks and deliberately answered incorrectly. When the turn comes to this single user, it is under pressure remaining too gave a wrong answer in 75% of cases.

We believe that everything is done correctly

When we bring home a mountain of unnecessary purchases, we may be ashamed. But we pushed embarrassment and frustration out and explain himself, that everything done properly and not wasted your money. Jeans two sizes too small to motivate us to lose weight, and expensive diary in leather cover is sure to help cope with the procrastination.

Refuse to buy it would be a huge mistake, because these jeans and this wonderful notebook, you will no longer find it. And this is also another trap - distortionChoice-supportive source monitoring: Do our decisions seem better to us as we age? in the perception of the choice made.

You can treat it as a psychological defense: people deceive themselves in order not to experience negative emotions and do not suffer.

Maybe different brain preserves the good and bad memories and reconstructs them in a positive way. Thus, during the experiment,Accuracy and Distortion in Memory for High School Grades students offered remember their estimates for all the training. And many of them claimed that their mark is better than it really was.

Incidentally, there is a fun way to get rid of the illusion of the correct choice - wash your hands. In any case, the participants of the experimentWashing Away Postdecisional Dissonance managed in such a way to get rid of misconceptions about what their right choice. Sometimes this phenomenon is called the effect of Lady Macbeth. Feeling shame or discomfort, a person tends to washWashing Away Your Sins: Threatened Morality and Physical CleansingTo be cleansed of imaginary sins. As Shakespeare's character, which after killing imagined bloodstains on his hands.

How to abandon such purchases

Avoid temptations

• Before going shopping, make a shopping list and do not depart from it unless absolutely necessary.
• Leave credit cards at home and disconnect the contactless payment services on your smartphone. Bring a Cash only - a fixed amount, which will suffice for the planned acquisition. Or set the Internet bank limits on cash expenses.
• Pre-assemble the information and reviews about the product you want to buy. The more time you spend in the store, the greater the risk that you will persuade to take an unnecessary thing.
• If you often criticize yourself for reckless spending in the shops, lock yourself the opportunity to make transactions on the network.
• Do not come to the store on an empty stomach. Not only in food but also in any other. Appetizing smells and images incite dopamine system and force us to seek pleasure, and thus buy-buy-buy.

Connect your imagination

Science journalist Irina Yakutenko in the book "Will and self-control"Offers not to think about the positive qualities of the object of his desire, and instead focus on its abstract characteristics.

If you want to buy a new dress, do not imagine how beautiful it would be to emphasize the figure as skirt will flow with your every movement and what views you are rewarded by others.

You can think of it just as a few pieces of fabric that are carved out and sewn together in a sewing factory, then taken to the shop, has been stripped and hung on a hanger.

The same is true with gadgets. Marketers, forcing us to buy a new smart phone, talking about ergonomic, bright screen, clear photos. To avoid temptation, you should consider that your phone - it's a box of plastic and glass, in which the packaged chips and wiring.

Walter Mischel, a psychologist and an expert on self-control, during the famous marshmallow test suggested that some children think about the most seductive qualities of this dessert - about what it delicious, soft, pleasant - and they could not resist the temptation and ate sweet. But those who imagined that marshmallows - a fluffy cloud, kept much longer.

And still, fighting the temptation to buy something unnecessary, it is possible to think about the bad. For example, a beautifully to imagine how you have to live up to the salary on the same bread and pasta. Then the limbic system, which usually makes us chase pleasures, will work in the opposite direction and will help you how to get scared.

Look for sources of joy

Impulse purchases are often associated with a lack of positive emotions. You can make a list of pleasures - in addition to shopping, - which you can treat yourself. And refer to it whenever there is a strong desire to buy something.

Trick dopamine system

The main thing that makes us acquire unnecessary things - lust for immediate gratification. It nourishes dopamine, which promises pleasure and have to buy too much, overeat, spend hours on social networks. To deal with this mechanism is almost impossible: nature came up with it, so we survived and died of starvation. But can be used for the benefit of dopamine itself. That's what Kelly McGonigal writes in his book "Strength of will. How to develop and strengthen»:

"We can learn from and try to neuromarketing" dofaminizirovat "our very least favorite classes. Unpleasant chores can be made more attractive if they establish for the prize. And if the reward for acts of relegated to the distant future, you can squeeze a little more out of the neuronal dopamine, to dream of a time when the long-awaited reward for their efforts (like the lottery advertising). "