The Roots of Impulsive Buying

Jimena Elizabeth Aguilar, Our Lady of Tepeyac High School, Freshman, Fall 2025

Have you ever wondered why you feel the urge to buy the first item you see? Or questioned yourself as to how your credit card maxed out? It happens to most of us, and it’s called impulsive buying and has psychological and emotional roots. “The importance of impulse buying in consumer behavior has been studied since the 1940's, since it represents between 40.0 and 80.0% of all purchases” (European Journal of Business and Management Research, 2025). Although impulsive buying is widely recognized by poor money management skills, such as not knowing how to budget, distinguish between needs and wants, or manage saving and spending, it comes with deeper roots. Impulsive buying is a prevalent thing that comes from anxiety, FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), emotional stress, etc. “40.0% of consumers spend more money than planned, in physical stores compared to 25.0% in online purchases” (National Library of Medicine, 2021). Keeping this in mind proves that when we shop in person, our expenses do typically come from impulsivity. This does not mean one should overspend online. 

Elba Lara, a 46-year-old therapist, states, “Overspending and excessive buying are associated with a lot of brain chemistry. Feel-good chemicals are repeated without feeling like you have no control, and that’s called dopamine.” Not only does dopamine release happiness, but it also creates a feeling of reward and anticipation. Because of that, it makes it hard to stop shopping because we feel we deserve that prize, and yes, sometimes we do, but we need to keep in mind how to spend healthily. Jazmin Aguilar, a college student at Bryant & Stratton, comments,“I do feel a rush when shopping, but it’s more of an excitement to buy something new. I don't have this, so let me get it. I see it, I like it, I want it, I buy it.” Aguilar’s comment proves how dopamine, that feeling of anticipation and happiness, fuels the rush of shopping, making it easy to keep buying even when we don’t need to. 

If we buy impulsively because of a deeper reason, it is important to understand why before that addiction takes a toll. Especially now with social media, people are starting to buy and give in more and more.