Is Impulse Buying a Survival Instinct?购物冲动原是生存本能？

by Bryan Borzykowski

乔皙 译

Is Impulse Buying a Survival Instinct?购物冲动原是生存本能？

by Bryan Borzykowski

乔皙 译

买买买……

在这个经济快速发展的社会中，人们的消费欲望不断膨胀，相信大家对去年 “双11购物狂欢节”的疯狂劲儿还记忆犹新！原本以为遇上打折促销是捡了大便宜，不买就亏了，但我们都输给了精明的商家，买了很多东西却发现自己根本用不着。那么，有什么办法让自己把钱花在真正有用的东西上？剁手族必看。

B efore the 26-year-old Indianapolis-based communications professional buys anything she asks herself a series of questions, such as, “do I need the item?” and “will it be useful in the long run?”

Once quite the1)spendthrift, Kumok blew through her budget, buying items on sale that she didn’t need and spending too much money dining out.While she didn’t max out credit cards or bury herself in debt, Kumok was spending above her means.

She now has a list of products that she absolutely will not buy, including books, notebooks and office supplies—three things she doesn’t need, but used to love to spend money on, to the2)detrimentof her bank account.

A big part of the problem: impulsivity.When Kumok moved to London for a year, for instance, she bought every guidebook she could find, including specialised titles likeA Book Lover’s Guide to Londonand obscure guides to specifc areas of the city.She couldn’t help herself.

Kumok didn’t read a single one of the guidebooks and had to pay $150 in extra baggage fees to bring them home.

Impulse spending is a big problem for many people.A 2012 Bank of Montreal survey, for instance, found that Canadians spend, on average, CAD $3,720 ($2,987) each year on impulse buys.A 2014 Creditcard.com survey found that 75% of Americans had made an impulse buy, with 10% of people spending more than $1,000 on a single item.A Nielsen study, conducted last year, found that impulsivity led 52% of people in Thailand, 48% of people in India and 44% of people in China to buy something they didn’t need.

Why are people so3)proneto making4)split-secondmoney decisions, many of which are detrimental to their bank accounts? And how can you resist the urge?

1 ) spendthrift ['spendθrɪft] n.浪费金钱的人，挥金如土的人

2 ) detriment ['detrɪmənt] n.损害，伤害

3 ) prone [prəʊn] adj.易于……的，倾向于……的

4 ) split-second 瞬间发生的，霎那间发生的

这位26岁的印第安纳波利斯传播专家买任何东西前都会自问一连串问题，如“我需要这件商品吗？”还有“是否可以用很长时间？”

库莫克曾经是个挥霍无度的人，常常超出预算，买她不需要的打折商品，在外出就餐方面花费太多。虽然没有刷爆信用卡，不至于负债累累，但库莫克花钱比赚钱快。

现在她有一张清单，上面记录着她绝对不会买的东西，包括书、笔记本、办公用品——这三种东西是她不需要而又曾很喜欢花钱买、有损银行账户的。

其中一大问题是：冲动。库莫克就是一个例子，她曾到伦敦生活一年，一到那里她就买了所有她能找到的旅游指南，其中有针对性明确的，如《书虫伦敦指南》，也有对伦敦某个地方作粗略介绍的。她控制不了自己。

那些指南库莫克一本都没看过，但却要另外花150美元的行李费把它们带回家。

冲动消费是很多人的一大问题。例如， 2012年蒙特利尔银行的一项调查发现，加拿大人每年平均花3,720加元（2,987美元）在冲动购物上。2014年Creditcard网站的一项调查发现，有75%的美国人曾冲动购物，其中10%的人曾在一件商品上花费超过一千美元。去年尼尔森的一项调查发现，冲动使得52%的泰国人、48%的印度人和44%的中国人买了他们不需要的东西。

为什么人们如此容易在金钱决策上鲁莽行事，而大多数决定对他们的银行账户不利？你怎样才能抵挡这种冲动？

The scarcity impulse

Ryan Howell, an associate professor of psychology at San Francisco State University in California in the U.S., said the impulse to buy, in part, is a survival instinct.Back in our hunter and gatherer days, when people saw something they wanted, they’d grab it, even if they didn’t need it, because it was likely they wouldn’t come across that item again.

“If you see something that seems to be running in short supply, you’re going to get it,” Howell said.

These days, such scarcity isn’t an issue—we can buy nearly anything we want if we have the means—but we often still approach life like our ancestors did, especially when it comes to a sale.When we see a 50% off clearance price tag, that scarcity impulse kicks into gear, Howell said.The feeling is, if we don’t buy that item now, it’s going to be gone forever—or at least at that good price.

There’s another reason why people buy things on a whim: it makes them feel good.Scott Rick, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan in the U.S.has found that the concept of retail therapy is a real thing.For some people, if they’re feeling sad, shopping will make them happier because it restores some control in their lives.It’s making the choice to buy or not to buy that helps people feel more in control.

Some research has also looked into how touch impacts our money decisions.In 2003, in the U.S., Illinois’ state attorney general’s office issued a statement around the Christmas holidays warning consumers to be careful about holding an object as it might encourage them to buy it.It might have been one of the odder public service announcements, but research indicates that touching an object increases feelings of ownership—and we don’t like to lose things that we own, Rick said.

稀缺冲动

瑞安·豪厄尔是美国加利福尼亚州旧金山州立大学的心理学副教授，他说购物冲动是一种生存本能。在狩猎和采集年代，人们看到想要的东西就会去拿，即使他们不需要，因为他们很可能不会再见到这件东西。

“如果你看到某种东西缺货，你就会去买，”豪厄尔说。

现在，这种稀缺已不成问题，只要有能力，我们几乎可以买到所有想要的东西，但我们仍常常以祖先的方式生活，尤其是碰到打折的时候。我们看到五折的清货标签时，稀缺冲动就起作用了，豪厄尔说道。这种感觉就是，如果我们现在不买这件商品，以后就没有了——至少没有现在的优惠价了。

人们冲动购物还有另一个原因：他们会因此感觉良好。斯科特·里克是美国密歇根大学的市场学助理教授，他发现购物疗法这个理论是可行的。对一些人来说，如果他们情绪低落，购物会让他们开心点，因为这让他们重拾对生活的掌控。做出买或是不买这样的选择让人们感到生活在控制之内。

一些研究还探究了触感对金钱决策的影响。在2003年，美国伊利诺斯州的司法部长办公室在临近圣诞节时发表了一份声明，提醒消费者注意手里拿着的东西，因为它可能会让你买下它。这可能是一份奇特的公共服务告示，但研究表明触摸一件物品会增加拥有的感觉——而我们不喜欢失去所拥有物件的感觉，里克说。

This partly explains why we simply must have that car we just took for a test drive or why losing a house to another bidder can be so devastating.Often, the moment we sit behind the wheel or walk through a place, we want it.

But, we don’t immediately hand over our credit card in exchange for car keys because there’s a lot more work that goes into purchasing a vehicle or a house than a video game or a pair of trousers.In the case of the former, there’s a built-in time lag between when we want something and when we buy, Howell said.“It takes a lot of time and effort to think about a house and to pull the trigger,” he said.

However, we still make bad decisions during bidding wars.It’s surprisingly easy to drop an additional $5,000 on a house, even if it’s over the price limit you had set.The worry? It’s scarcity fear again.If we don’t get this house, another one might not come along.

“There are a lot of physiological5)variablesthat go into a bidding war,” Howell said, including the fact that it is exhilarating and emotional to bid and win.

Ultimately, our bad split-second money decisions come down to one thing: we don’t take the time to think.If that bidding war was done over days or weeks, rather than minutes or hours, it’s unlikely you’d keep hiking up the price of that house, Howell said.

5 ) variable ['veərɪəb（ə)l] n.可变的事物，易变的事物

6 ) counteract [kaʊntə'rækt] v.抵抗，抵制

7 ) dissipate ['dɪsɪpeɪt] v.消散，驱散

8 ) rule out 不考虑，排除

因此，我们试驾后就要买那辆车，房子落入另一个投标人手中会让我们如此难过，这就是其中一个原因。通常情况下，开过那辆车，走进过那套房子，我们就会想拥有它。

不过，我们不会马上递上信用卡，换取车钥匙，因为买一辆车或房子比买游戏机或裤子要复杂得多。在前一种情况中，在想要和购买之间有一段拖延时间，豪厄尔说。“我们要花很多时间来认真考虑一套房子，才会决定买下它。”他说道。

然而，我们仍会在投标大战中做出错误的决定。我们很容易就会多花五千美金来买一所房子，虽然这超过了自己定下的价格上限。我们在担心什么呢？还是稀缺恐惧作祟。要是不买这房子，可能以后就买不到了。

“投标大战中涉及许多生理变量，”豪厄尔说，其中包括，投标和胜出让人兴奋和激动这个事实。

归根结底，鲁莽错砸金钱可归结为：我们没有花时间去思考。如果投标大战持续几天或几周，而不是只有几分钟或几个小时，你就不太可能会不断推高那房子的价格，豪厄尔说。

Resist the urge

Can you6)counteractyour natural tendencies? With a bit of discipline, it’s possible.Howell suggests waiting 24 hours before making any would-be impulse purchases, big or small.Of course, that means you need to recognise when you’re being tempted.If you still want the item the next day, then buy it if you can afford it.But most likely you’ll have forgotten about it or the intense must-have feelings will have7)dissipated.

Another trick: start monitoring your spending and pay with cash.If you are able to see just how much you’re parting with, you are more likely to end up only buying the things you really want.

Purposely over-examining purchases and8)ruling outcertain categories of items altogether has worked for Kumok.By running through her list of questions, she delays her purchasing decision and thinks hard about whether she needs an item.She buys almost no books these days and instead checks books out of the library, buying only tomes she really wants to own forever.

Of course, the urge to spend hasn’t disappeared.Just a few weeks ago Kumok walked into a store and saw a box of chocolates with a yellow tag on it.She thought the tag meant it was a sale and the familiar “buy now” feeling came over her.When Kumok got closer, she saw that it wasn’t a sale tag after all.Would she have bought the chocolates if they had been on sale? Probably, she said.

“Those little tags really do crazy things to people’s minds,”Kumok said.

抵抗冲动

你能抵抗自己的内在冲动吗？运用一点自制力是有可能做到的。豪厄尔建议在任何可能的冲动购物前先等24小时，不管金额大还是小。当然，这意味着你要在被诱惑时有所知觉。要是你第二天还是想要这件商品并买得起，那就买吧。但很可能你已经把它忘了，或者“必须拥有”的感觉已经消失了。

另一个方法：开始关注花费，并用现金支付。如果你看到你花出去多少钱，你可能只会买真正想要的东西。

有目的地多加审视购物行为，排除某些商品种类，这两个方法在库莫克身上可行。她给自己提出了一串问题，延迟购买，认真考虑是否需要。她现在几乎不买书，取而代之的是到图书馆查找，只买那些想要永久收藏的经典巨著。

当然，花钱的冲动不会消失。就在几周前，库莫克走进一家商店，看见一盒贴着黄色标签的巧克力，她以为这个标签是打折的意思，那种“买买买”的熟悉感觉再次涌现，但走近一看并非如此。如果这些巧克力确实打折了，她会买吗？很可能会，她说。

“那些小标签真的会让人头脑发热，”库莫克说。