Dr. Terry Wu’s Insights into Reducing Shopping Addiction

• What business is Amazon truly in?
• Why is stress related to shopping habits?

In a recent program by Big Think, Neuroscientist Dr. Terry Wu discussed the rapid modern transition from store shopping to online buying. He explained how our brain function dictates our online shopping habits for good or bad.

By exploring the essential functional areas of our brains, we can understand our love-hate relationship with money. Learning various strategies to fully benefit from our new online shopping activities can help us avoid the consequences of abusing them. The Internet marketplace’s easy availability can be a blessing or a curse.

• The Impact of Opposing Brain Functions – The limbic system processes our emotional responses. The brain’s frontal cortex enables reasoning and rational decision-making. He pointed out that we are evolutionarily programmed to feel first and reason later. We seek to feel good and avoid anxiety. A significant factor in this brain relationship is that stress causes the rational frontal lobe to shut down. Decision-making is then surrendered to our emotions and feelings. While this can be a beneficial thing when being chased by a tiger, it can lead to damaging results when practiced in our complex modern society.
• The Loss of Control and Stress – This panic can lead to a loss of impulse control for those who are under chronic stress. That lack of impulse control feeds into our desire for the reward of instant gratification. The frantic buying of toilet paper at the beginning of the pandemic exemplifies how stress makes us irrational. There was no actual shortage of toilet paper. Regardless, rumors spread, and shortages appeared due to the hoarding and panic buying of frightened consumers. The empty store shelves reinforced fears and ratcheted stress up even further. The panic became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• The Illusion of Control and Shopping Addiction – There are many ways to motivate consumers to buy more, including crowd influence to validate consumer choices. Citing others choosing a particular product and highlighting the most popular items feed into our desire to feel safe. Readily available credit accounts defer the perceived pain of paying for goods by putting it off to a future time, making a present purchase a stress-free and enjoyable experience. The lack of pain produces an illusion of control, which makes the shopping experience pleasurable and increases the amount the shopper spends. Clever marketers know that feeling in control of our lives is vital to reducing stress.

How can we control these internal gremlins that use emotion to guide our overspending online? Dr. Wu has some suggestions we can use.

Take Your Control Back and Avoid Manipulation

Dr. Wu’s brain hacks are a great starting point in making online shopping our helpful servant and not our master.

• Place Barriers to Impulsive Shopping – Random, impulsive shopping sessions are ripe for abuse. Restricting shopping to a predetermined date and time frame helps, along with a list of desired items to focus on. Traditional live shoppers lacked the time and access to shop at a whim and thus spent more time planning and considering their purchases. The relatively new concept of credit cards also forced them to consider the payment of precious cash for each purchase.
• Delay the Urge of Instant Shopping – Allow time between the urge to buy and an actual purchase transaction to let the rational brain center do its work. Addiction researchers have shown that impulses are fleeting and generally only last minutes until they pass. Deliberately pausing before purchasing harnesses the initial excitement and lets the rational brain function take control.
• Reduce Your Stress with Exercise – Use stress-reduction techniques like physical exercise to minimize our stress-induced urges to binge and impulse shop. Physical exertion releases stress-reducing chemicals. It also has positive effects on the frontal cortex function.
• Reduce Your Stress with Social Support – Positive and regular social interaction is also critical to stress reduction. Feelings of belonging and acceptance are essential to human beings. Reduction of stress in this manner helps us keep emotional responses in their place and use our frontal cortex to make decisions regularly. Practice makes perfect.

Online shopping is here to stay as the dominant form of modern commerce. Understanding our role in developing good habits is necessary for enjoying the benefits of the new world of shopping and avoiding its negative impacts.