Feeling Guilty or Ashamed? Think about Your Emotions before You Shop
Suppose you grabbed a few cookies before heading out to the grocery store and start to feel guilty or ashamed about breaking your diet. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, feeling guilty might find you comparing calories in different cartons of ice cream. Feeling ashamed might keep you from buying any ice cream in the first place.
.. “We examined the emotions of guilt and shame and found that when consumers feel guilty, they tend to focus on concrete details at the expense of the bigger picture. On the other hand, when consumers feel ashamed, they are more likely to think abstractly and form a more holistic view,” write authors DaHee Han (McGill University), Adam Duhachek (Indiana University), and Nidhi Agrawal (University of Washington).
Read full article: Journal of Consumer Research, October 14, 2014