Studies find shopping sprees can lift depression and improve health
Studies have shown that shopping can help lift depression and improve health, although the retail fix does not last long, writes Jeanette Wang
Television personality Tammy Faye Bakker once said: "I always say shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist." But is buying things really a legitimate form of therapy for distress, or is it just an excuse for materialists to spend more?
New research suggests shopping does have benefits for one's personal well-being. "While materialism can increase loneliness, it may actually reduce loneliness for some consumers," says Rik Pieters, a professor at the School of Economics and Management at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.
[Shopping] may actually reduce loneliness for some consumers
"Increasing opportunities for social interaction and improving social skills may be more effective at reducing loneliness than the usual appeals to turn off the television or stop shopping," Pieters says.
Pieters did a study on the bidirectional relationship between materialism and social isolation that was published in the Journal of Consumer Research in December last year.
In another paper published the same month in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, University of Michigan scientists proposed that retail therapy "has been viewed too negatively".
"People often shop when feeling sad, but whether and why shopping reduces lingering sadness remains an open question," say researchers from the Ross School of Business.