BEING SAD CAN BE COSTLY SCIENTIFIC BLOGGING - In a new study that links contemporary science with the classic philosophy of William James, a research team finds that people feeling sad and self-focused spend more money to acquire the same commodities than those in a neutral emotional state. The team's paper, "Misery is not Miserly: Sad and Self-Focused Individuals Spend More," will be published in the June edition of Psychological Science . . . In the experiment, participants viewed either a sad video clip or one devoid of human emotion. Afterward, participants could purchase an ordinary commodity, such as a water bottle, at various prices. Participants randomly assigned to the sad condition offered almost 300% more money to buy the product than "neutral" participants. Notably, participants in the sadness condition typically insist, incorrectly, that the emotional content of the film clip did not carry over to affect their spending. Self-focus helps to explain the spending differences between the two groups. Among participants "primed" to feel sad, those who were highly self-focused paid more than those low in self-focus. Notably, sadness tends to increase self-focus, making the increased spending prompted by sadness difficult to avoid. Why might a combination of sadness and self-focus lead people to spend more money? First, sadness and self-focus cause one to devalue both one's sense of self and one's current possessions. Second, this devaluation increases a person's willingness to pay more for new material goods, presumably to enhance sense of self. http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_releases/new_study_examines_why_sadness_increases_spending
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