Consumerism: Red, White and - Blue?

Time has an interesting article about media, mood and shopping

Barbara Kiviat reports that "People who are sad tend to be willing to pay more for things — it's like going to the grocery store on an empty stomach..." She says they made two groups of people, showing a sad video to one group and the other group watched one about the Great Barrier Reef.

Then they showed then an object and asked both groups how much they'd pay for it. The people who'd been made sad said they would pay more for it.

I've seen people angrily asking why the 9/11 video and the recorded phone calls are played. Now their feeling that they are being manipulated is underscored by this study. Kiviat reports that the study was conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Stanford and the University of Pittsburgh and will be published in the June issue of Psychological Science.

Sensationalist reporting is good for business and now you understand why your newspaper looks the way it does. It's a hand on your wallet.