研究:買到便宜貨的快感如同做愛

Retail therapy is often said to make up for a poor love life – and now new research has shown why.

A study has discovered that shoppers get the same level of emotional excitement from special offers as they do from sexual arousal.

Researchers have found that bargains make us so deliriously happy that the brain is turned on to the same level excitement that it gets from sex. And that is why they are such a successful way of selling items from the shelves.

Academics came to the conclusion after measuring brain activity in emotional areas of the mind, while volunteers carried out a number of activities including shopping and watching an erotic film.

They found a coupon or free gift with a jar of Marmite or a loaf of Kingsmill bread gave them just as much excitement as the pornography.

Researchers at the University of Westminster, used specialist equipment to monitored eye movements and emotional responses in the body to a series of everyday consumer products in 50 volunteers.

Some featured special promotions like a discount coupon scheme or a free gift offer or an association with a favourite character like a Wallace and Gromit campaign. Other everyday groceries in the test featured no special offers and were the normal versions of well known brands.

The researchers used a system called iMotion which measures the body's emotional responses on a scale of one to 10. A high of 10 is the equivalent to severe trauma which is rarely seen and could be dangerous. But a score of between five and seven is the kind of excitement a body has to erotic images such as pornography.

One Marmite promotion, to get a free audiobook featuring the children's character Horrid Henry, registered a scored of up to 5.8 among the consumers. Others including a discount couple for Cravendale milk and a Wallace & Gromit free gift with Kingsmill bread also scored particularly highly among the early results.

The research has been commissioned by The Institute of Promotional Marketing and is yet to be completed, it was revealed in trade journal The Grocer.

But the early results suggest the ones which get shoppers most excited in the tests have also been among the most successful commercially.

Colin Harper of the Institute said: "It's early days but these results indicate a correlation between high emotional response and sales uplift."

人們常說購物療法可以彌補一個人感情生活的不幸，如今有新的研究揭示了其中的原因。

一項研究發現，購物者們買到特價商品所獲得的興奮感，同他們性慾被喚起所獲得的興奮感程度相當。

研究人員發現，特價商品讓人欣喜若狂，能讓大腦產生同性愛中所獲得的相同程度的興奮感。這就是爲什麼特價銷售的方法能夠成功地賣出貨架上商品的原因。

在志願者們進行購物和觀看色情電影等活動的同時，科研人員們對他們大腦情感區的活動進行了觀測，從而得出了這一結論。

他們發現，一罐馬麥醬或一條金斯米爾麪包附贈的優惠券或免費禮品給他們帶來的興奮感和他們觀看色情片時所獲得的興奮感一樣多。

威斯敏斯特大學的研究人員利用專業設備對50位志願者在看到一系列日常消費品時眼睛的活動和人體的情感反應進行了監控。

其中一些雜貨店有特價促銷活動，如贈送折扣券、提供免費禮品，或是與華萊士和小狗阿高這樣討人喜歡的卡通人物相結合的促銷活動。其他在測試中涉及的日用品雜貨店沒有特價活動，只是照常銷售知名品牌。

研究人員使用的是一種被稱爲iMotion的系統，該系統能測量身體的情緒反應，並按從1到10分級。最高的10級相當於嚴重的精神創傷，這一級別極爲罕見，而且會很危險。而5到7級是身體在面對色情片等性愛畫面時達到的興奮水平。

有一個促銷馬麥醬的活動，購買者能免費獲得一本兒童有聲讀物《調皮的亨利》，對此消費者的興奮水平達到了5.8級。另外早期的結果顯示，克萊文戴爾牛奶附贈的折扣券和金斯米爾麪包附贈的超級無敵掌門狗免費禮品給消費者帶來的興奮感指數也很高。

據行業雜誌《雜貨商》透露，市場營銷推廣學會委託開展了這項研究，並且該研究還有待完成。

不過早期的結果已表明，測試中那些最令購物者們興奮的商店也是一些經營得最成功的商店。

市場營銷推廣學會的科林•哈珀說：“儘管研究還處於早期階段，但是這些結果表明了強烈的情緒反應同營業額上升之間的相關性。”

Vocabulary:

Wallace & Gromit: 《超級無敵掌門狗》，英國廣播公司（BBC）發行的黏土動畫片，主要人物是超愛乾酪的華理士（Wallace）和他忠誠的小狗格勒米特（Gromit）。