Personality and spending Habits, vice/versa

[256bits]

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/spending-data-personality.html
It's true. they will know more about you than you do yourself.
Or is it.
I am not sure what to make of this study for the future and its implications

 

[fresh_42]

In my opinion this is more or less trivial: buy > dopamine > nucleus accumbens. And of course does behaviour under temptation display parts of the personality: risk of addiction, self control, ratio between emotional and rational behaviour and things like that. Supermarkets are arranged by this principle!

 

[Schwann]

I see this type of conclusions as rather obvious. Personality traits are derived from behavioral patterns. Thus, behavioral patterns such as spending habits can reflect personality traits.

More interesting question here is whether spending data is a high predictor or not. As the authors of the original paper state, previous predictions from Facebook likes and status updates outperformed their predictions, based on spending data. It may be related to the fact that "spending patterns (unlike social media profiles) are not necessarily an expression of an individual’s personal preferences". For example, spending can go for fixed bills or other people (e. g., children). That is why the spending data itself is rather noisy.

 

[DennisN]

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/spending-data-personality.html

Interesting. But not very surprising to me.

 

[DennisN]

Supermarkets are arranged by this principle!

And the layout of IKEA stores are very telling:

...which may lead to this problem.

 

[256bits]

That is so telling of today's marketplace.

Grocery stores the same thing.
Lemon juice - where do I find it - it the cooking section, the juice section, the drink section, ... You end up touring the whole store looking and searching and being tempted, and of course succumbing on impulse.

And of course, the next time you run out and go for another, the location has changed.
I used to think in my innocent years it was change of management whereby the new one had new and improved organizational skills for product placement - and of course he/she did... as a way to get you to buy more!

 

[fresh_42]

Grocery stores the same thing.

What I hate most is, that the goods like lettuce or fruits which have to be put on top are placed at the beginning. I often reverse my way and walk in an order that allows a reasonable packing.