"Fear of Missing the Opportunity"
While shopping, we can find ourselves buying a product that we never thought of before, or maybe we will never use just because it is on sale. This may be because everyone is triggering FOMO (fear of missing out).
As psychology explains, FOMO can grab your brain's attention and make it difficult to think about something else. Thus, we naturally start to be more engaged in shopping. Social media and television contain plenty of content that triggers this. Seeing our friends' new purchases on Instagram increases our likelihood of shopping, but I want to explain this in a little more detail.
The madness of the crowds
The first effect of crowd psychology is that when we're in a group with other people, we become a little anonymous and a little more willing to do things we wouldn't normally do. In psychology, this phenomenon is called "deindividuation" or "identity ambiguity". The more I resemble the rest of the crowd and the better I know them, the greater the effect. Think of a football team. All the same color and without identification. They play as a group and we match them to their teams, even though they make sense individually.
SHOPPING MADNESS
We know that in addition to crowd psychology, there are fundamental psychological principles that drive us to buy right now. The psychological causes we will consider here are nothing new. These are not actually the consequences of modern life. Instead, they are deep and ancient psychological impulses activated by modern life.
There are four factors that affect people when shopping, especially during sale periods:
1. What is the savings percentage of the discount?
2. Is it popular?
3. Distinguished?
1. What is the savings percentage of the discount?
We pay much more attention to the percentage of a discount than how much we actually save. I think it would be better understood if I give a few examples.
If something is only available for a short time then you should probably get it now. This is a basic human drive. For example, consider an ancient person looking for food. Maybe he doesn't want to eat blueberries right now, but if there are only two left in the bush, he might be better off eating it. Is not it? When it comes to shopping, stores will usually offer discounts for a very short time. In fact, if it is not a corporate store, for some reason the "You cannot find this price as of Monday, it will increase on Monday."
That is why you hear squeezing phrases like. This gives urgency to our actions: if I don't act now, then I miss out. Forever! Never to be repeated! Until January! This means that instead of thinking about the loss of savings represented by the purchase, I have to think very quickly how badly I will feel if I miss it by moving too slowly. This is important because we naturally avoid losses: we usually don't want to lose our money, even if we get what we want.
2. Is it popular?
This is a feature that also comes from the people of ancient times. If there are people gathering around the blueberry bushes, we go to buy blueberries even if we don't want them at that moment. Because that thing can be finished when we want it. So why do we think so? It is often difficult to judge the relative quality of a commodity so we use mental shortcuts. If a lot of people like it, then it should be good! For example, imagine that there are two stalls selling sandwiches. You've never been to either. One has several people waiting outside, the other has no one. If you are not really in a hurry, you prefer to go to the crowded one. This actually makes perfect sense: you know that other people see it as a good choice, lacking any other information, and maybe they know something you don't know.
3. Distinguished?
While we want something urgent and popular, we don't necessarily want something everyone can have. When we don't know the true value of something, knowing that it's special definitely adds to its value. If not everyone has it, then it should be better! Limited editions, special editions, and customizations are common ways stores create a sense of separation. We know we are getting something out of everyone's reach, which makes it more attractive to us. Black Friday and November Sale are a classic example of artificial privilege. While a store has a warehouse full of televisions, it has chosen to sell twenty of them at 50% off for just one day. All of this means that shoppers currently think they are missing something if they aren't taking advantage (fear of missing out, FOMO). And missing is something people don't like.