Take A Good Deal

Research shows that a fair deal feels good because it activates the brain’s reward centers (ventral striatum, ventromedial prefrontal cortex), just like cocaine.

Participants were given offers to split a sum of money, and almost always accepted 50/50 or 40/60 deals, activating the brain’s reward centers. Bad offers activated the insula - the region associated with disgust.

Thinking About Buying

Brain activity during simulated shopping shows that thinking about buying a good is itself an enjoyable activity.

When presented with products, participant's nucleus accumbens (subcortal brain region) - associated with the anticipation of pleasure - was activated. When presented with excessive prices: insula (another brain region) activated and medial prefrontal cortex - associated with balancing gains versus losses deactivated.

The study challenges conventional economic understanding of consumer purchases - consumers decide b/w immediate pleasure of a purchase and delayed pleasures of alternative things. Instead, the study suggests that consumers trade off immediate pleasure of a purchase VS. immediate pain of spending money. This may explain why overspending when using credit cards instead of cash.

Buying Means Touching

American Economic Review reports that people will pay 50% more for a product if the item is in front of them vs. on a computer screen or just a text description.

Interestingly, product desire lowered when products were behind plexiglass. The findings demonstrate that being able to physically touch a product significantly affects purchasing behavior.