Why Lonely People Spend More?
Loneliness is a feeling that you may go through several times in your life but they are dealt differently by different people. Some of you may turn to drinking more, watching more TV or simply shut the door and remain alone. It is also the time when you spend or invest more to make up for the lost love or belonging to the society. The true cure for loneliness lies in reconnecting with your friends and loved ones but that is not very easy.
Psychologists suggest that spending, investing and purchasing behaviors should not be led by emotion but after careful evaluation of various possibilities. Or else you might end up in an emotional loop of buying more to feel happy. New research has identified various reasons why our spending habits become irrational when we are lonely.
Here are 7 major reasons why lonely people spend more
1. Loneliness is Associated with Wealth
Loneliness is associated with being wealthy. In such situations, you tend to make riskier decisions while you invest in shares or even indulge in gambling. In such a scenario, you risk more of your financial or immovable assets to secure the lost bonding.
2. Shopping More to Cure Loneliness
You may feel like going to the mall or a retail outlet to buy cosmetics, clothing or accessories to cure your loneliness but it creates a vicious cycle of more loneliness and more buying. You may buy more to overcome sadness, grief or feeling of rejection from the society.
3. You Shop More to Feel Loved and Wanted
Loneliness deprives you of the love of your family members, friends and others closely associated with you. Spending money on shopping and buying goods is a mechanism you adopt to get back the love and closeness that you have lost. Or perhaps, the material possessions make you less lonely.
4. You Buy More to Show Success and Power
If you are lonely, you may try to cover up the void by showing how successful and powerful you are. One way of doing it is to spend on material things for others to see. It may create a false feeling of importance and power among your colleagues, family members and friends.
5. Stress at work and Relationships Makes You Lonely and You Buy More
If you are unsatisfied with your job, business or relationships, you are likely to shop more to overcome the loneliness created by the circumstances. When you are trapped in such emotional situations, you may develop the habit of overspending or investing more in risky ventures.
6. You Buy More to Cure Unhappiness, not to Raise Self-Worth
When you are lonely, you tend to buy more to feel happy but not to raise your self- worth. If a designer wear makes you feel comfortable and raises your confidence level, there is no harm. If you think it can cure your unhappiness, you will regret buying it.
7. Lonely People Need to Keep Up with the Joneses
Most often you buy more when you are lonely to keep up with your neighbors and friends not knowing that those possessing an expensive car or house aren’t quite happy with themselves. But you never interact with them as you are feeling lonely and isolated yourself.
You can’t cure loneliness by acquiring more possessions or spending more money chasing happiness. You tend to do so because it is easier to spend money than taking an effort to cure your loneliness and feeling isolated from society. It may require opening up before others, seeking help of therapists and understanding the root cause of your loneliness. The unexpected beneficiaries of your irrational activity are the retailers and investment companies.
