Decisions and Emotional Happiness

Decisions and Emotional Happiness

Are we being played by our emotions?

I learned in Marketing 101 that the majority of purchasing decisions are fueled by emotions. At the time, I doubted that! I seriously thought people bought goods and services based on rational, data-based considerations.

Now I am not so sure.

POS (Point of Sale) displays encourage impulse buys. Candy and small items are arranged at the check out counter to attract your attention. We have all put just one more item into our shopping cart as we waited for the cashier. Location is important.

Colors influence emotional responses. When was the last time you purchased something that had a brown and black coloration of its packaging? Red, yellow, and green may stimulate your emotions and your wallet.

Visualizations influence purchase. Do the people in the picture above the item look happy? We all want that! Our purchase may be emotionally motivated. When reality hits that the “thing” does not really influence our happiness, our emotions may flip, and we are again on an emotional safari for something new and satisfying. We are ready for that next trip into retail therapy.

As human beings, are we doomed to forever be on the happiness treadmill? Are we forever seeking something “else” that will fulfill our searching nature? Something that, once acquired will leave us content. Must we forever be stimulated by what is new and exciting and offered as the answer to our seemingly inborn need for acquisition and that will bring us happiness.?

So much of our society plays to this emotional searching. Lottery players and gamblers seek the big win. It will surely meet all their needs if they win, and they will feel happy. Online dating services promise relational happiness. Once found, the perfectly appropriate mate turns out to have the same or different flaws that existed in previous mates. Really? The rush of being “in love” fades and continued searching starts to look good again

Heading to the store to purchase a specific item ends up with an abundance of impulse buys. Rationally we think that they will make the job easier, or satisfy a sudden sweet tooth, or somehow brighten our day. It “feels” so much better to go home with a whole bunch of satisfying purchases instead of just one necessary item. Hmmm? Sounds like emotions colored the purchasing experience.

The same treadmill of emotional responses affects us as consumers, relational beings, workers, and as human beings in general. We seem to be doomed to seek something.

This emotional tendency is well known by corporations, politicians, religions and newscasters. If each situation is carefully considered, the human emotional response and tendency to be continually seeking something new and different, permeates them all.

The grocery store offers us new products, new flavors, new results. Politicians promise new reforms, additional benefits, positive outcomes. Religions encourage us to seek more connection and stronger commitments to achieve greater happiness on a soul-deep level. Newscasters and their parent corporations are always looking for the man-bites-dog story that will satisfy our unquenchable thirst for drama!

Are we doomed to be the victims of our emotional responses? Is every level of our existence affected by this deep seated seeking after happiness and satisfaction?

If we continue to respond to every stimulus on an emotional level, we are on a treadmill of our own making. Stepping off that treadmill will create some vertigo, but the dizziness will pass, and solid ground may materialize under our feet.

Steps toward non-emotional responses include some non-cultural considerations.

First: Avoid things that you know, on some deep level, will cause chronic discontent. A big, new house in the country may momentarily raise your status among your peers. That FEELS good. The reality of the long new commute is unsettling, and not satisfying. The stress it causes may shorten your life. It adds nothing positive to your daily life. Status versus Stress. Make a rational choice.

Apply the same criteria to things that will momentarily bring you gratification but have a negative or debilitating long term affect. New job, more status, less time at home, more responsibility and more stress. Is more money and more stress really going to improve your life and health long term? If yes, great! If not, well, make a rational decision and live with it.

A Second step toward escaping the search on the happiness treadmill is your expectations. All emotional decisions are made with the expectation that they will somehow make your life better and bring happiness. Do not alter the “things”! Alter your expectations. Expect that things will only bring you temporary happiness. Do not expect long term happiness.

They are things. They do not have any ability to impart long term happiness. Evaluating them should not be done emotionally. Know yourself and your expectations. “If only” is an emotional expectation. “If only I had a better job/more beautiful wife/bigger house/new car then I would be happy.” Finding happiness means evaluating the deeper value of things and evaluating whether your expectation of happiness will be met temporarily or eternally.

Third: Seek long term satisfaction. Yes, live in the moment, but realize a lifetime of happiness is made up of millions of ‘in the moment’ experiences. Think about things that last. If you plan on spending two hours commuting, you are investing two hours of your life, every day, in that trip. Would two hours of every day, for years, invested in your relationship with friends, spouse, children pay off better over the long run? Would spending eight hours a day at a stressful job that leads to agitated interactions at home be a good long term investment?

If you find yourself a victim of your own emotional search for happiness, you are not alone. The best approach to avoiding being a victim is to gain some control over your emotions. You will never cease to “feel” your emotions, nor should you seek to do that They are a big part of what makes you human. Instead, learn to use another human quality in combination with your emotions.

Learn to think clearly. By avoiding what will chronically make you unhappy, recognizing that you will only receive momentary gratification from ‘things’, and seeking long term value from your time, energy and monetary investments, you will free yourself from the emotional treadmill. Expecting long term gratification, chronic stress and emotional bondage in decision making will slip away. The tread mill can sit still more often. You will find the walk through life more enjoyable and fulfilling.

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Want to research more?

www.eyesee-research.com: “Store Environments and Consumer Purchase Behaviors: Mediating Role of Consumer Emotions. Mathur/Smith

“The Art of Thinking Clearly” by Rolf Dobelli

Research.gate.net: Indirect Impact of Hedonic Consumption and Emotions on Impulse Purchase Behavior Mizra/Abbasi

https://www.Link.springer.com Subjective Well-Being Among Adolescent Consumers: The Effects of Materialism, Compulsive Buying and Time Affluence Manolis/Roberts

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