A Specialist Explains the Effects of Black Friday on Your Brain

Do you favor Black Friday or Cyber Monday? The January sales or Amazon Prime Day? Or maybe you prefer waiting for a traditional clearance event with deep discounts.

No matter your shopping preferences, it’s likely that you enjoy the thrill of scoring a good deal.

The weeks leading up to Black Friday showcase this eager desire for discounts. Online, you’re constantly hit with ads and promotions for exclusive deals ahead of Christmas.

The Tradition of Post-Christmas Sales

Physical retailers also embrace the sale season. Joining a crowd of eager shoppers outside major stores on the day after Christmas has become a holiday tradition in itself.

However, it’s not always a peaceful affair. Recently, when the premium French kitchenware brand Le Creuset held a flash sale in Andover, England, police had to step in to manage the overwhelming crowds.

Shoppers traveled from far and wide, waiting for hours to grab discounted luxury cookware.

Past Black Friday sales have seen shoppers involved in physical altercations over in-demand items. In the U.S., a website was even created to track injuries—and fatalities—during the event.

It seems that discounted products, whether it’s electronics, kitchenware, or designer bags, are highly coveted in today’s culture.

The Science Behind Bargain Hunting: How Our Brains React to Discounts

This obsession with bargains is partly driven by a chemical response in our brains that pushes us to buy when we encounter reduced prices. When we spot a deal, the pleasure center of our brain (the nucleus accumbens) lights up.

This means that people experience a strong sense of satisfaction when they find and purchase a bargain. The nucleus accumbens, along with other brain areas linked to reward, also plays a part in processing emotions, often in conjunction with the neurotransmitter dopamine.

Dopamine is a chemical that regulates the brain’s reward and pleasure centers and is tied to feelings of happiness. When people view items they want to purchase, the part of the brain with dopamine receptors becomes activated.

This results in a dopamine “rush” while shopping, which makes people feel good about their actions. Add to this the fact that dopamine also makes people more impulsive in their decisions, and it becomes clear why discounts trigger such excitement in consumers.

Retailers and the Psychology of Shopping

If consumers enjoy feeling rewarded and satisfied, it’s up to retailers to deliver those feelings, and they use various strategies to help customers get their dopamine fix. Understanding the psychology behind shopping gives stores, big and small, a powerful set of tools for persuasion.

One such tool is offering deals for limited times, which creates a sense of urgency. This heightens adrenaline levels, making customers feel excited about the possibility of scoring a bargain. This is why sales are often tied to specific days, weeks, or months.

A countdown timer on a website works in a similar way, pushing consumers to act quickly before they miss out.

The good news is that consumers can resist these biological urges and avoid falling for the lure of a deal, though it requires some self-control.

When you come across a low-priced product, avoid the impulse to buy it immediately. Take your time to think it over.

If you’re in a physical store and worried that someone else might snatch it up, carry the item with you and walk around for a bit. As the initial urgency fades, you’ll likely feel less compelled to buy.

The same strategy works online—take a break, step away from your screen, and let the urge to grab a deal lessen.

No matter how great the discount or how tempting the item, you may eventually realize it’s not as necessary to your life as you initially thought.

Read the original article on: Science Alert

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