Shopping Equals Happiness

Analysis:

The story is based upon the book of an Emory University neuroscientist named Gregory Berns. He has a new book out entitled “Satisfaction: The Science of Finding True Fulfillment,” but viewers wouldn’t know this because the channel 13 story never provides the source of the research they mention. They only quote one shopper and then end the story with an appeal for people to go to their website and vote on whether or not shopping makes them happy.

There is no real information to support the claim that shopping makes you happy, except that they said that shopping releases dopamine in your system. The news reader simply says that “Dopamine is a chemical that stimulates pleasure.” Later in the story they also say “But researchers say beware of the rush you get when you shop because in can lead to blowing your budget.” So while the story makes the claim that shopping gives you pleasure, it warns you about spending too much, which seems disingenuous since channel 13 then encourages viewers to send it shopping stories. Another aspect of this piece was that it appears to be a Video News Release. The video footage used does not appear to be local and when I looked online for the author of the book on this subject I came across his university, Emory, which had a link to recent video news releases that the school has produced based on their research.

Story:

Newsreader #1 – Well there is now medical evidence to prove that shopping makes you feel better.

Newsreader #2 – Now not necessarily the part where you pay, but the hunt for the perfect present actually creates higher levels of dopamine, which is the chemical that stimulates pleasure.

Shopper – You’re on a hunt and you’ve been to every store to find a certain product and then all of a sudden you go and find it and you not only find it, you find it in your size. That is, that’s victory.

Newsreader #2 – But researchers say beware of the rush you get when you shop because it can lead to blowing your budget and you may eventually feel guilty after adding up those receipts. So what do you think? Does shopping make you happy? Let us know how you feel when you are hunting for the perfect gift or just shopping for yourself. Log on to WZZM 13.com and click on the poll 13 to vote, and we will have the results right after sports.

Total time: 50 seconds