Is Spending Money The Most Addictive Behavior We Experience?

Receiving text messages is not the only way to get the good feeling dopamine creates. When considering behavioral activities that stimulate dopamine production there are arguably four levels of behaviors, each with increasing levels of enablement by society, thus making each level more enticing and easily addicting. Here is where we discover the reasons why spending money can be more addictive than so many other behaviors.

Illegal activity

The first group includes things like illegal drug use and stimulants which synthetically encourage dopamine production. The laws and societal attitudes toward drugs naturally discourage and punish their use. In addition to labels with the negative and scolding connotations that are assigned to illegal activities by our society, drugs are not readily available to most people; you can’t buy them at the grocery store. Influences, such as these, act to make these kinds of mood enhancing behaviors less attractive.

Legal, but negative behaviors

The next group includes negative behaviors, such as eating junk food and smoking. While both of these dopamine producing behaviors have negative health implications, they are legal and readily accessible. Few people openly encourage you to participate in either of these behaviors, but it can be easier to fall into this behavior category because little is done to stop you from enjoying them.

Recognition for positive behavior

The third group includes positive behaviors. These are obviously legal, but more importantly they are openly encouraged by society and the recognition you get from them affects dopamine production. For example, dopamine is released and creates a temporary euphoria when you receive recognition for passing a hard test, giving to charity, or being promoted at work. You may not see regular television ads encouraging you to work harder at your job, but the good feeling that peer recognition gave you can encourage further positive behavior.

Spending Money: The behavior that is aggressively encouraged.

Finally, spending money also achieves a mood enhancing dopamine release. Spending money is different from most other mood enhancing behaviors, however. Unlike drugs it is not illegal. Unlike the negative behavior of over indulgence on junk food, it is not generally discouraged. Spending money could be the most addictive behavior because of the various reinforcements we receive, constantly telling us that it is ok to buy. Society tells us that we are doing the nation a favor if we spend. In fact, the reinforcing fawning you may receive over your new sports car can far outweigh the cordial “good for you” received for an A on your math test. Finally, many easy ways to spend money are readily available and even in low amounts there is a dopamine reward. I spend 25 cents on a rubber ball in a grocery store vending machine and my 4 year old and I are both happy for the next 5 minutes.

1) Spending money is ruthlessly marketed to you.

You are overtly encouraged via advertising to spend your money on thousands of different things. Spending is covertly encouraged, for example, by product placement in TV shows. It is inferred that you will be better off if you look, live, travel, sleep, or even smell like highly compensated celebrities.

2) Spending money is extremely easy.

You can shop online or at a store, use store or major credit cards, take out a loan, have automatic deductions from income checks, get advances on tax refunds, use payday loans, put merchandise on layaway, get short term “same as cash” financing, use gift cards, and even use old fashion cash! There are endless ways to spend money.

3) Spending money is rewarded with recognition.

Who will receive more positive attention at work today? The woman who saved $200.00 by purchasing new work clothes at the Goodwill or the woman who spent $200.00 on a stylish new dress at the boutique? The guy who paid cash for his “new” 10 year old car, or the guy who leased a new luxury sports car? The guy who just ate the appropriate ratio of carbs, protein, and fat for lunch or the girl who is wearing new diamond earrings? The guy who gave $100 to charity or the guy who just bought everyone a round? The positive attention we are rewarded with when spending money validates the behavior in our minds.

4) Spending money is the patriotic thing to do.

Late in 2006 when worries of a recession were taking hold the advice we received from the President of the United States was “to go shopping”. Today, even as we still recover from the Great Recession our government leaders encourage us to spend in order to allow the creation of more jobs. The nation hovers around the consumer confidence index in hopes we are always spending more.