U.S. researchers say they have determined why impulsive shoppers continue to make spur-of-the moment purchases despite experiencing strong feelings of guilt and regret.

Most consumers feel a blend of guilt and happiness after making an impulsive decision, according to researchers Patti Williams of Pennsylvania's Wharton School Business and Suresh Ramanathan of the University of Chicago.

Prudent shoppers tend to linger on feelings of guilt after making a rash purchase while impulsive shoppers dwell on feelings of happiness, researchers say.
(Canadian Press)

But thrill-seeking shoppers tend to quickly expunge feelings of guilt whereas prudent shoppers tend to hang on to regret longer, according to the study published in the August issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.

"Over time, prudent people lose those positive emotions," Williams told CBCNews.ca.

"If we ask them a couple of days later how they feel about that impulsive act, they only feel the guilt and regret, they don't feel the high of having been impulsive," she said. "Those impulsive people, on the other hand, are just the opposite. They've lost the guilt and regret entirely and all they remember is how great it was to have indulged."

Feelings of happiness, regret follow impulse decisions

The researchers conducted two experiments involving nearly 300 undergraduate students.

In the first experiment, students were given a survey to determine their consumer habits and then were given a task to make sentences out of a set of words that included "yummy," "delicious" and "indulge."

The students were then taken into a room to fill out paperwork. At the table was a plate of cookies. Participants were later asked if they took a cookie and how they felt about it.

"Most of the research had said that when you're impulsive, immediately you'll feel positive emotions and with delay you'll feel negative emotions," Williams said. "What we find is that right after being impulsive people feel both positive and negative and in fact some people feel guilt with delay and some people just don't."

The second experiment followed the same procedure as the first however at the end, participants were asked to choose between a bag of chips or a plain notebook as a thank-you gift. Prudent consumers who had taken a cookie were more likely to choose the notepad.

Prudent consumers launder guilt

These results show that people are very adaptive and understand how to reconcile their negative emotions of guilt, Williams said.

"From our perspective, they laundered their guilt away," Williams said. "They do something really functional, really utilitarian, no hedonic value whatsoever and so now they feel good about themselves as people and they don't have to feel bad about taking the cookie any longer."

Williams says if consumers want to get their spending habits under control they should work on thinking more seriously about their immediate negative emotions.

"Thinking about those costs and living with those negative emotions a bit more might help reduce your impulsiveness," she said.