It's been more than a decade! Why can't I control my hands when Double Eleven comes?

A few days ago, the Double Eleven pre-sale started. Have you started shopping again?
The Double Eleven Shopping Festival, which started in 2009, has been going on for 14 years. Although the series of operations of calculating deposits, final payments, discounts, and finding coupons make people dizzy, many people are still enthusiastic about shopping.

Why do we always go shopping on Singles’ Day? What’s the psychological basis behind this? How can we avoid spending too much?

When we talk about the Double Eleven shopping spree, what exactly are we talking about?

Relevant research shows that the proportion of consumers dissatisfied with impulse purchases is as high as 62%. This uncontrollable impulse consumption may develop into compulsive consumption after repeated cycles (such as low-price discounts during various shopping festivals). According to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), compulsive consumption is also a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

An experiment on compulsive consumption showed that when compulsive consumers viewed products, the nucleus accumbens (considered to be the pleasure center of the brain) was significantly activated and their desire to buy became stronger.

According to this standard, many people are compulsive consumers on Double Eleven. They have an annual shopping spree and impulsively stock up on a lot of things. They can't control their hands and then regret it afterwards.

Why do we shop on Double Eleven?

Behind the Double Eleven shopping spree, there are actually some psychological mechanisms at work.

1. Anchoring Effect

In psychology, the anchoring effect refers to the fact that people are easily influenced by previous information before making a decision or judgment. This information is like a heavy anchor, which makes our thinking based on this information to make judgments, but such judgments often lead to deviations.

During the Double Eleven event, some merchants used the anchoring effect to make people feel that things were very cheap, but in fact they "raised prices first and then lowered them", using a high price as a reference price, and then using preferential strategies to make the prices look very cost-effective.

2. Loss Aversion

Loss aversion refers to the fact that people feel more pain when they lose something than they feel pleasure when they gain it.

A typical coin tossing game can reveal that most people have a loss aversion psychology: the rules of the game are that if the coin is facing up, you get 300 yuan, and if the coin is facing down, you lose 200 yuan. Most people are unwilling to play this game because although the probability of winning 300 yuan and losing 200 yuan is equal, people are more sensitive to losses and are unwilling to take risks.

The same goes for the shopping spree on Singles’ Day. If you don’t buy something now when it’s discounted, and then buy it at the original price later, you’ll feel like you’ve lost out.

3. Ego depletion

Experimental studies have found that willpower will continue to be consumed as it is used, which psychologists call ego depletion. In this state, people's willpower is weak, the decisions they make are more irrational, and their behavior is more likely to get out of control.

Before Double 11, people would restrain their shopping desires and add many items to the shopping cart, waiting to buy them when the prices drop on Double 11. This restraint on shopping desires will also consume willpower. When Double 11 comes, willpower breaks through the defense line, and shopping desires are easily ignited by the anchor's "buy it!"

In addition, the complicated discount calculation rules of Double Eleven also turn consumers into "mathematicians", constantly consuming their willpower. Before the discount rules are calculated, the brain is already exhausted, making it easier to make impulse purchases.

How can I control my hands?

If you want to stop overshopping, you can try the following methods:

1. Understand your consumption motivation and make a shopping list

Think about whether the current purchase is for practical life needs, or to kill time out of boredom, or to express your identity and enhance your self-confidence through the symbolic meaning of the product, or to improve your mood and relieve anxiety. After thinking about it, you can reduce the number of "shopping sprees" to some extent.

Then you can write down the things you want to buy in a table, check whether there are any items you already have that can be purchased instead, and don't buy anything that is not on the list.

2. Set your own spending amount

Do not use credit cards for advance or overdraft consumption. Try to pay in cash as it makes it easier to understand your spending limit.

3. Try retail therapy and spend some money

If you still feel that you understand the reasoning but still can’t help yourself after reading this, that’s OK. Appropriate shopping is also a form of retail therapy, which has a positive effect. Retail therapy refers to a set of self-regulation methods that use shopping to self-regulate, release stress, and relieve negative emotions.

Appropriate shopping can help people enhance their sense of control over life, relax, promote social interaction, and enhance their sense of happiness. A survey shows that among people who feel stressed, one in three people has relieved their anxiety through shopping.

In terms of specific implementation, you can spend more offline and less online. Studies have shown that the psychological experience of shopping in physical stores is better than online shopping. So try to go out of the house to consume and spend more on items that can bring a sense of experience, such as fitness, dance classes, etc.