Your Brain & Shopping

News Flash: Science is now discovering what consumers have known all along: Shopping makes you feel good.

Don't you just love it when science makes these big discoveries, like, "sex makes you feel good." I mean, for us women, we've known about shopping highs and shopping for stress relief for a long time. When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.

I guess what they mean is that they are now mapping out in the brain what happens when you go shopping. They've discovered that the dopamine receptors get activated.

Here's what the Wall Street Journal Health Editor Tara Parker-Popes reports:

Much of the joy of holiday shopping can be traced to the brain chemical dopamine. Dopamine plays a crucial role in our mental and physical health. The brains of people with Parkinson's disease, for instance, contain almost no dopamine. Dopamine also plays a role in drug use and other addictive behaviors.

Dopamine is associated with feelings of pleasure and satisfaction, and it's released when we experience something new, exciting or challenging. And for many people, shopping is all those things.

But MRI studies of brain activity suggest that surges in dopamine levels are linked much more with anticipation of an experience rather than the actual experience -- which may explain why people get so much pleasure out of window-shopping or hunting for bargains.

I guess that is like anticipating sex, or a victory on the playing field, or many other things. The anticipation can be as much or maybe more exciting than the actual event. It's all about our expectations. The mind is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

Now what would really be interesting is to map the brains of men and women while shopping, to see if there are any differences.

All I want for Christmas is a little dopamine...