時尚雙語:節省開支的八種方法
Your brain is conned to spend, spend, spend. Here's how to take back control
We really should know better. Despite the neon-lit fact that we're in the depths of the credit crunch, official figures show that last month we splurged on shoes and clothes, spending about 9 per cent more than this time last year. Why is it so hard to restrain our retail urges? A new study helps to confirm that when we're shopping, our brains are not our own. We might think we are in control, but in fact the big levers are grabbed by our primitive drives.
Worse, the marketing industry has spent billions scientifically perfecting ways to hijack your hyper-emotional primordial circuits into buying stuff that your sensible higher brain knows you don't need or particularly want. The good news is that much of this research can be turned on its head - instead of bamboozling our brains into breaking the bank, we can kid our instincts into spending less. Here's how:
Give yourself - and your purse - a break
Pausing briefly between choosing something and taking it to the checkout can dramatically boost the chance of the cash staying in your purse, says a study to be published in December's Journal of Consumer Research. Wendy Liu, of the University of California, Los Angeles, ran four tests where she interrupted people's purchasing. She found that a break in the buying process changed their priorities. Before the interruption, shoppers fixated on whether the object they desired was a bargain. After the interruption, they returned with a far more objective, higher-brained view - did they really want the thing at all?
The need to cool off our consumer brains is reinforced by Gregory Berns, a neuroscientist at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. His brain-scan studies show how the feelgood-chemical dopamine is released in waves as shoppers see a product and ponder buying it. But dopamine is all about the hunt, not the trophy: only the anticipation, rather than the buying, squirts the chemical. Once you've sealed the deal, the chemical high dissipates in minutes, often leaving a sense of regret that retailers call “buyer's remorse”. With practice, you can get your hormone kicks from window-shopping: no purchase necessary.
Don't even touch your cards
Four studies on 330 people in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied confirm the suspicion that it is much easier to spend money in the form of a credit card. The New York University-led report concludes that we regard anything but hard cash as “Monopoly play money” and that real currency is the only thing that gives you the “pain of paying”. Credit cards might not only anaesthetise retail pain, they may create a physical craving to get the dopamine high from spending, says Professor Drazen Prelec, a psychologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He cautions in Marketing Letters that when you see and touch the plastic it is just like smelling biscuits baking when you are hungry: you feel compelled to splurge to satisfy the craving.
Keep brands out of your brain
Designer brands have proved unprecedentedly effective at persuading you to spend more money on “special” goods that are actually only of average quality. Brands are painstakingly developed to encourage people to identify with them, to believe that their favourite labels have exactly the same human values as they do. A study in the Journal of Advertising Research reveals how our Stone Age brains are built to relate to other people and animals - and this way of relating attaches to inanimate objects, too. We habitually anthropomorphise, which is why many of us call our cars “she” and give them cute names. In similar fashion, we increasingly attribute human-like personality traits to brands.
The research shows that we can even believe that the brand has an attitude towards us, so we develop tight “primary” relationships with it that are on a par with marriage and kinship. So instead of simply choosing between products, subconsciously we think we are picking life partners and powerful new tribes, and that we can buy our way into higher group status.
Don't shop with friends
Jennifer Argo, an assistant professor of marketing at Alberta University's School of Business, realised that whenever she went shopping with a friend, she changed her habits, choosing costlier foods and clothes. Argo employed mystery shoppers to stand by a rack of batteries, and found that their mere presence made the battery buyers pick the most expensive brand. If no one was there, they chose cheaply. The result, published in The Journal of Consumer Research, was consistent in three separate studies. “We will spend more money to maintain our self-image in front of others,” she says. One answer, according to a separate study, may be to shop with your relatives: we buy fewer things when visiting stores under the eagle eyes of family members.
Staying calm costs less
We might be more liable to spree when financially squeezed: under stress we can feel driven to hoard, says a study of students in Behavioural Research Therapy. This might have an evolutionary explanation: getting gripped by the urge to stockpile provisions in times of threat would have helped our ancestors' survival. This residual instinct can also help to explain how sales campaigns may work en masse by collectively preying on our deepest insecurities - you smell bad, you're not good enough, no one likes you.
Be suspicious of special offers
Chainstores love to make you feel that you are getting a generous deal, because this makes you buy more than you need. When you see special offers on the shelves, your rational brain tends to go soppy with thanks and makes you want to return the favour by splashing out on unnecessary items. It's called the “spill-over effect”. Here, at least, it's worth honing your ingratitude.
Think global, feel richer
A study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation last year found that wealthy Londoners no longer feel rich, because they do not mix with less affluent people any more. We need to look wider, to the global neighbourhood. About half of humanity lives on less than £1 a day according to the UN. Meanwhile, a fifth of the Earth's people buy nearly 90 per cent of all the consumer goods. That's us, the stressed guys in the wealthy neighbourhood.
Satisfice yourself
“Satisficing”, in social-science jargon, is the sensibly shod alternative to maximising. When you satisfice, you don't let an impossible quest for the perfect option destroy your enjoyment of the merely OK. The credit crunch is an opportunity to decide that life in the West today, with its unheralded levels of healthcare, home comfort and personal safety, is pretty much as good as it will get, and there is actually no need to try buying more contentment. We just need to convince our primitive brains of this.
你的大腦只知道花錢、花錢、花錢。下面這篇文章告訴你怎樣收回對大腦的控制權。
我們真的應該更加了解。儘管已經深陷信貸危機，但官方數據表明，上個月，人們在鞋子、服裝上面的開銷比去年同期增長了9%。爲什麼控制我們的購買衝動如此困難？一項新的研究有助於證實：在購買東西時，我們的大腦會失去理智。我們也許會認爲自己盡在掌握中，但事實上，我們卻在受原始衝動的支配。
更糟的是，營銷行業花費了大量資金，不斷完善劫持人們超情緒原始迴路（hyper-emotional primordial circuit）的方法，讓人不禁購買那些本不需要或不是特別想要的東西。然而好消息是，這項研究帶給我們一些啓示：不要被大腦騙得傾家蕩產，我們可以騙過本能，藉此節省開支。詳見下文：
1.讓你和你的錢包喘口氣
將於十二月份在《消費者研究》雜誌發表的一項研究表明：在挑選商品和付款之間短短暫停一下，這能顯著提高把錢留在口袋裏的機會。洛杉磯加州大學的Wendy Liu在人們買東西時，打斷了他們的購買，對他們做了四項測驗。她發現，購買過程的中斷改變了人們優先考慮的事情。在中斷前，購買者關注的是他們想要的東西是否打折。在中斷後，他們回到了更加客觀、理性的狀態——他們真的一定要買這些東西嗎？
平靜消費者大腦的必要性得到了喬治亞州亞特蘭大市埃默裏大學神經學家Gregory Berns的支持。他的腦掃描研究顯示，在人們看到某件物品並考慮購買它時，讓人感到快樂的一種化學物質——多巴胺得到了陣陣釋放。但多巴胺只和尋覓過程有關，和得到戰利品無關：只有預期，而不是購買，能釋放這種物質。一旦你付了錢，多巴胺在幾分鐘內迅速消散，常常給人留下後悔的感覺——商家稱之爲“購買者的懊悔”。通過練習，你能通過瀏覽櫥窗刺激你的激素——不需要真正購買。
2.別碰信用卡
《實驗心理學》雜誌記載了對330人所做的四項研究：這些研究用於證實這樣一個假設——通過信用卡付款更容易花錢。紐約大學主導的一份報告得出結論：除了現金，我們把所有東西都視爲“某種遊戲貨幣（Monopoly play money）”，只有真正的鈔票能給你帶來“付款的痛苦”。麻省理工學院心理學家Drazen Prelec教授說，信用卡不僅麻醉了這種痛苦，而且它能增加從花錢中獲得多巴胺的慾望。他在《市場快報》中提醒人們，當看到、接觸到信用卡時，就像飢餓的人聞到烤餅乾的味道：你將感到不得不揮霍，以滿足自己的慾望。
3.忽略品牌
設計師品牌能非常有效的說服你爲“特定”商品花費更多的錢，儘管事實上這些商品的品質很普通。這些品牌煞費苦心的讓人們認可它們，使人們相信，購買喜愛的品牌非常值得。《廣告研究》雜誌上的一項研究顯示了我們古老的大腦如何應付其他人類和動物——這也包括了與沒有生命的東西。我們常常會人格化，這就是爲什麼許多人稱自己的車爲“她”並給它們取些可愛的名字。對於時尚來說也是如此，我們不斷的給品牌賦予類似人的性格特徵。
研究顯示，人們甚至認爲品牌對人們有態度，因此人們對品牌產生了緊密的“原始”關聯，就像婚姻和親屬關係一樣。因此人們不再是簡單的選擇商品，而是下意識的認爲在挑選生活伴侶和有力的新羣體，這樣，人們可以買到達到更高羣體地位的途徑。
4.別和朋友一起購物
阿爾伯塔大學商學院行銷專業助理教授Jennifer Argo發現，每次她和朋友購物時，她會改變自己的習慣，購買更貴的食物和衣服。Argo僱傭一些祕密顧客去購買電池，結果發現，只要這些人出現，真正的購買者就會挑選最貴的電池品牌。而如果他們不在時，顧客則會選擇便宜的。這個發表於《消費者研究》雜誌上的結果與其他另外三項獨立研究一致。“在別人面前，我們會花更多的錢來維持自我形象，”她說。在一項獨立研究中提到了一個例外，和親戚逛街：在家人銳利的目光下逛商店，我們買的東西更少。
5.保持冷靜，花費更少
當經濟緊縮時，我們可能會變得更加瘋狂：在壓力之下，我們會感到被迫囤積東西。這也許可以從進化的角度來解釋：儲存糧食有助於我們的祖先存活下來。這些殘留下來的本能同樣能解釋促銷活動總能起作用，促銷抓住了人們最深的不安全感——你散發臭味，你不夠好，沒人喜歡你。
6.留意特別優惠的商品
連鎖店喜歡讓你感到你抓住了大量機會，因爲這會使買更多的東西。當在貨架上看到特別優惠的商品時，你會變得失去理性，認爲自己非常幸運，使你認爲自己應該歸還這個人情，於是買了一堆不需要的東西。這就叫做“溢出效應”。要想突破這一點，你需要把臉皮練得更厚。
7.綜合考慮，感到更富有
Joseph Rowntree基金會資助的一項研究去年發現，富有的倫敦人不再感到富有，因爲他們不再和比他們窮的人交往。我們應該看得更廣，放眼全球。根據聯合國的數據，全球有半數的人每天的開銷不到一英鎊。同時，五分之一的人購買了全球將近90%的消費品。這就是我們，在富人中感到巨大壓力的人們。
8.做出滿意選擇
“滿意選擇（Satisficing）”，在社會科學術語中表示選擇最大號的鞋子。當你做了滿意選擇，你就不會爲了一個不可能的最優選擇而毀了感覺還可以的樂趣。信貸緊縮是一個做出決定的機會：當今的西方生活，包括不可預料的醫療保健、居住環境、人身安全狀況，在未來也會很好，實際不需要購買更多的滿足。我們只需說服我們的大腦看清這一點。
