Olga Khazan wrote an article on
how to “squeeze the most pleasure out of holiday purchases.” Behavioral
economists found out that people’s happiness from shopping comes from more than
getting good deals. In 2011, psychologists Elizabeth Dunn, Daniel Gilbert and
Timothy Wilson from the University of British Columbia, Harvard, and the
University of Virginia, respectively, made a study on how to shop in a way that
makes the consumer happy. They came to eight rules to solve the dilemma. The
first is to buy experiences, such as traveling. The second is to help others,
not yourself. The third is to buy many little things instead of just one big
thing. The fourth is to not buy a warranty. An example of this is keeping a
cracked phone for a while and changing it when a new one comes out rather than
fixing it and then changing it. The fifth rule is to buy now and consume later,
building anticipation and making the person happier when they actually consume
the thing. The sixth is to consider details. The seventh is to not spend time
comparing process from different shops; because doing so can lead to
over-thinking and paying too much attention to factors that don’t matter. The
last is to “go with the flow” because sometimes people enjoy things more just
because others like them. The psychologists came to the conclusion that money
can buy most, if not all things that make people happy, and the fault is our own
if it doesn’t.
Khazan’s
article was mostly informational, presenting the findings of three psychologists
on how to “shop yourself happy.” She includes the universities they went to,
adding credibility to the article as a whole. The psychologists came up with
eight rules, and Khazan presents them in an informal way, explaining them
clearly and giving real-life examples of how they would be exercised. Her diction
is informal and appealing to the reader. She was very successful in presenting
the information clearly and convincing the reader to follow those rules.
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