Ulterior Motives

How goals, both seen and unseen, drive behavior.

by Art Markman, Ph.D.

Another shopping tip: Consider opportunity costs

By Art Markman, Ph.D. on December 10, 2009 in Ulterior Motives

It might seem obvious that every dollar we spend on one purchase is a dollar that we can't spend on another purchase—each purchase has an opportunity cost. Once we have made that purchase, that money cannot be spent on something else in the future. To what extent do these opportunity costs affect the purchases we make? Read More

compulsive spending

Submitted by Anonymous on December 10, 2009 - 11:01pm.

This is not exactly the same topic, but my comment has to do with shopping...I am an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin, and I recently wrote a paper discussing the possibility of adding compulsive spending to the DSM. When I first heard about this discussion, I thought it was a no-brainer; compulsive spending is an excuse for those who have the inability to manage their budgets. As I did more research for this paper, I changed my mind. With the research that has been done and comparing this behavior with other disorders that may have seemed irrational at one point, I believe that compulsive spending deserves further research and should be added to the future DSM. What do other people think?