Turns Out Shopping Was the Right Response to 9/11 After All
SHRINKS IN LAB COATS HAVE RECENTLY TURNED OUT STUDIES ON TWO PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA GENERATING BUZZ in recent news cycles.
Seven years ago, the World Trade Center was flattened by Al Queda terrorists, weakening
the foundation of America's psyche. For a few weeks afterward, the world stood still, so much so
that experts feared economic collapse. In those dire days, President George Bush urged the nation to keep
shopping, a bit of advice that was mocked and seemed to miss
the larger point of our sorrow. Well, according to a psychological study released last week, it
turns out Bush might have been on to something. In a recent experiment, students shown a sad video were willing to pay four times more for a bottle of
water than students shown a less emotionally evocative video. The researchers, at four universities, concluded that sadness can
trigger emotions that lead to extravagance, in particular when the shopper is
"self-focused." Turns out Bush really did have his finger on the pulse of a self-absorbed, mourning nation.
Then, in yesterday's New York Times, writer Benedict Carey explored recent studies
that cemented evidence of the social benefits of "mirroring" behavior. Carey
cites experiments done at Nijmegen University in the Netherlands, and at Duke University, that
show that "by drawing on apparently similar skills, even in seemingly trivial ways, people can
prompt almost instantaneous cooperation from complete strangers." But the mimicry must be
delayed by a few seconds or else it can be construed as mockery, thus eliminating any potential
social gain. The piece is a short lesson for salesmen and emotional sharks, but of less interest to those indifferent to the art of manipulation.
Posted February 13, 2008
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