Greed Isn't Dead, It's Just Napping
It's a popular sentiment at the moment: This recession is not only temporarily affecting our ability to spend, it's actually changing society's value system, so that we're genuinely less bothered about acquiring a new Prada purse and more interested in strolling hand-in-hand in the park. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? A pity it's delusional, say psychologists who believe that even though everyone is abstaining from extravagant spending now, they won't hold out forever.
Those who don't actually need to economize, but are nevertheless doing so due to the cultural climate, will soon give in and revert to their spendy ways, according to a new study that reveals how self-control is a finite resource. Unlike a muscle that gets stronger every time you use it, willpower apparently just wears out! (Which goes some way, we guess, to explaining why rehab centers have so many repeat customers.)
Even watching other people go without exhausts one's own capacity to do so, so it's only a matter of time before the temptation to indulge, spend, and succumb to our "base desires" becomes too hard to resist. Maybe if we're lucky there'll still be some stores in business when that happens?
