Smile Campaign Research

Smile research

Retail therapy:

When people feel sad or anxious people cope in different ways, one way that many people cope is retail therapy. From a 2014 study from the Journal of consumer found that retail not only makes the person feel instantly happier but can also fight a lingering sadness that they may be coping with. Clinical psychologist Dr Scott Bea said ' research suggests there's actually a lot of psychological and therapeutic value when shopping in moderation'. One reason why people turn to retail therapy is they have control over what they are buying/ doing, a study has shown that most sadness can be generally associated with loss of control over situation. So when people are shopping have control over where they go and what they buy they feel happier, retail therapy has become more popular as most people gain a sense of self control from shopping. It has also been found that window and online shopping has similar benefits to retail therapy. Another survey that was conducted in 2014 by the University of Michigan found that when people buy things that they personally enjoy it can be 40% more effective to give you control than not shopping at all. In this study they got a group of people to just window shop ad online shot and got another group of people to actually buy stuff, from this they found that the people who actually purchased the items were 3 times less sad then the people who were just browsing. People who feel anxious or stressed also take part in retail therapy because when shopping it stimulates the senses and allows people to become more calm and content. similar to stimulating the senses, the visualisation of shopping distracts us from the anxiety that we may be feeling before or during shopping. 

However, retail therapy can also have some downsides, one of these downsides is loss of money. Retail therapy can sometimes cause a dramatic loss in money if it is not done in moderation and can get out of control. This can lead to debt which may cause more problems within the persons mental health, retail therapy can cause more harm than good in our mental health if we don't do it in moderation and have control over our spending's. Companies now are clever with how they create marketing posters or adverts and how they sell their products to people. An example of this can be the new Amazon Christmas advert, it shows a girl who is anxious about going out but then when she goes onto the amazon app and buys something her mood improves. This type of marketing will lead people to feel like if they buy something it will improve their mood and make them less sad. Retail therapy or impulse buying can also cause other problems such as feeling guilt, shameful or regret once they have bought something, this will cause people to go into crippling debt. 

(https://adelphipsych.sg/what-is-retail-therapy-and-how-it-can-become-a-problem/)