University of Minnesota Moment: Compulsive Buying

Transcription

[Announcer]: I'm Rick Moore with the University of Minnesota Moment. TV ad blitzes, radio commercials and your daily newspapers stuffed with ads like a Thanksgiving Day turkey. Yup … the official shopping season is within view, and like eating too much at the dinner table, some people just can't help but buy too much. Ron Faber, a professor of mass communication in the University’s journalism school, has studied compulsive buying.

[Faber]: Well, we've been doing work on this for about 20 years now. And the work looks at people who are compulsive buyers, who are people who are impulsively driven to buy. They really have very little ability to control their buying behavior.

[Moore]: Faber says that there are different kinds of people who are compulsive.

[Faber]: There are different kinds of people who do this. Some compulsive buyers are driven to buy everyday. Others will do it episodically. And, typically, they'll be set off by negative feelings. And, the holiday season is one of those times when that can happen.

[Moore]: Faber also says there is help for those who seek it.

[Faber]: There is a Debtors Anonymous. And, as part of it, they include people other than just compulsive buyers, but they do have now subgroups for compulsive buyers. But there are treatments. There's two major forms that are underway. Probably the most common is what is known as cognitive behavioral therapy. And then there's also some drug therapy that's being used.