Buy now, regret later: rationalising the irrational for shopaholics

• Main Author: Knowledge@SMU
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2009
• Subjects: Business; Marketing
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/ksmu/296; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1295&context=ksmu
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Why do we buy things that we don't need? One explanation is that it nourishes our consumerist cravings; that inexplicable sense of satisfaction that comes with the ownership of familiar items, but in a different colour, design, brand, smell, taste – things we tell ourselves to celebrate each euphoric ring on the cash register. What follows, however, are questions of doubt that plague even the most seasoned of shopaholics: Can I afford this? Can I really find good uses for this? Can this new car really fix my hair loss? According to a new study by SMU marketing professor Jane Wang, such feelings of post-purchase regret and guilt could be due to a failure to envision our future interactions with the product-in-question.