Virtual ownership, impact bias and buyer’s remorse

Try to imagine this really common scenario that I, too, came across with: you have few hours to kill and the weather is scorching hot too. There’s this atmosphere in the air that practically screams for you to go do something else. And luckily, across the hotel you’re currently at, is a lovely air-conditioned shopping mall. Inside its clear and polished glass walls, you glimpse designer product displays and then you convince yourself you’ve been sitting in your hotel the whole day, you might as well stretch your legs and do some window shopping.

While you are strolling inside the mall, there is that tiny little shiny object that caught your attention. You tried to ignore it, but it’s like it stamped its image on your head with a permanent marker and there’s this stubborn bubbling in your chest that basically says ‘you must have it’.

But then, you firmly reasoned in your mind that you need to save money for something really important this year, and that you are not going to be coaxed to buy stuff and ruin your carefully planned budget.

But that tiny little shiny object really looks good. It looks so good that suddenly, your mind shifts into virtual ownership.

Virtual ownership is allowing your mind to entertain you with the image that you actually own a certain product. Virtual ownership makes you think that you now have it, that it’s yours. You imagine how the shiny object would look on you and you admire that very image. This is called Impact Bias.

Our brain is just simply amazing when it comes to tricking us. There is a clash going on between the image of the product on you and its real significance on you; a war between cost, resources and the pleasure of image. But the image part always wins. For some inexplicable reason, you know you just need to have it.

I heard popular speaker and great author Andy Stanley once said:

“Like that expensive car, your brain tells you that once you have it you have “arrived.” Your friends will envy you. Others will be impressed with you. And the moment you buy it and have it you will automatically be an “8” on the success scale with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. The truth is you are only a “3” but you would not know it at that moment because you have “Impact Bias!” Now here is the funny thing. You imagine all sorts of good things when you can’t even see the car that you own because you are inside it all the time.”

Just like in the quote, the idea of a new car is very convincing. It convinces you that you have ‘arrived’. And so you know you must have it. And so you look for ways, like credit cards, or loans or maybe even to the point of borrowing money. But once it is in your hands and you realize its damages, you feel remorse on why you even have it in the first place.

All these ads that make us feel that we are not full-blown citizens without their products are all efficient. But then, we feel remorse. Because its effects are really that of lesser money and more regrets. This is the “Buyer’s Remorse». The thing with this is that the feeling itself is the same as admitting to yourself and others that you lack the discipline to control yourself.

Virtual Ownership, Impact Bias and Buyer’s Remorse. These things do affect us, almost all of us. And that they are always present.

So, an advice for those who want to kill time is to go to a quiet place, a coffee shop or a book shop, read a book and look up something worthwhile. Bankruptcy is best avoided in this silent and cost-less way.

(Spend two inspiring days with Francis Kong learning leadership and life skills as he presents Level Up Leadership June 24-25 at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel. For further inquiries contact Inspire at 09158055910 or call 632-6310912 for details.)