Emotion Trumps Reason in Credit Card Use

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Adding more information to credit card disclosures will not reduce consumers' overuse of credit cards, concludes a new university study underwritten by the American Bankruptcy Institute. The results of the study, which was conducted by law and psychology graduate students and faculty from the University of Nebraska, Fordham Law School, Southern Vermont College and Florida International University, fly in the face of the economic model for consumer behavior, the researchers say. That model assumes consumers who possess complete information will act rationally to avoid overspending when spending's costs outweigh consumption's benefits. Instead, the researchers found, emotion trumps rational choice for many consumers, particularly those who use shopping as a form of antidepressant. In fact, consumers who shop to lift their mood acknowledged pain with increased knowledge about the high costs of excessive card use, but they continued to use their credit cards more and spent more through the experiment's simulated shopping excursion than did shoppers not motivated by emotion, the study found.