Naturally, the holiday season is a big time for shopping. The name of the season is giving, and winter holiday spending is expected to jump up as much as 3.5 percent, according to the National Retail Federation.

However, not all of these purchases will be reasonably made. Rather, according to research by Alice Wang, University of Iowa Tippie College of Business marketing professor, lonely people are more likely to impulse buy during the holiday season.

Lonely people are also more prone to make other impulse decisions, especially those that allow them to be further isolated, the research suggests.

Loneliness is increasing in today’s world. An early 2024 poll by the American Psychiatric Association found that 30 percent of adults had felt feelings of loneliness at least once a week for a whole year prior. The study also showed that 25 percent of adults reported feeling lonelier since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Wang has worked on research centered around loneliness and social isolation since 2007 and has published her findings in a variety of papers.

Wang said the definition she and others involved in the research use for loneliness is focused on a lack of quality relationships, not necessarily a lack of relationships.

“I [the person] want more than what I have,” she said. “And when there’s a deficit, people feel lonely.”

She said a standard 20-question questionnaire measured research and study participants’ loneliness.

Wang said those who are lonely are more prone to buy impulsively, meaning they buy things that they do not plan to buy. What Wang said her research suggests is that individuals who are not lonely have better self-regulation and budgeting skills, whereas those who are considered lonely lack those skills in some way.

People who her research identifies as lonely have unique purchasing habits other than impulsivity, Wang said. When considering endorsements, she said lonely people would pick a product that a minority of people endorse over a majority.

“Eighty percent of people chose black, 20 percent chose pink,” she said. “Most people who are not lonely would choose the 80 percent, but we have found that when people feel lonely, they choose the minority-endorsed product.”

She said this behavior is intrinsically reflective of the lonely person’s self-identification as a lonely person and, therefore, single themselves out.

“They choose minority-endorsed products because subconsciously or consciously they know they’re a minority,” Wang said.

She said her research uses data from sources like scanner databases to reflect consumer purchases. Additionally, they examine lonely traits through methods that connect the lonely person with something sentimental, like an old t-shirt.

Wang said she will sit down with the lonely person or people after asking them to bring an old T-shirt with them. Then, by the end of the conversation, she asks them to leave the shirt behind. Their response to this request is a measurable response that indicates the effect of loneliness.

UI fourth-year Ph.D. student Christian Parry, who has assisted Wang in her research and been a co-author on some of her papers, said his focus was on the burgeoning relationship between social isolation and the digital world.

Specifically, Parry has looked at how loneliness can result in negative behaviors like coping behaviors that lead to what he said were “problematic video gaming habits.”

He said lonely people are attracted to video games as an opportunity for social interaction, but that ultimately, the equation feeds on itself when this pursuit results in isolation from the real world.

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Parry said a large issue in how loneliness affects a person’s life when in contact with mediums like video gaming is a concept called narrative transportation.

Narrative transportation, Parry said, is the concept that a person shifts their perspective from the real world and into a fictional world, which could be conjured by a book or video games, among other things. He said loneliness drives people to involve themselves more in a fictional world, worsening their isolation.

He said text analysis from Reddit posts as a part of their study showed lonely people tend to choose multiplayer games to find a social connection. These games are also heavily addicting, Parry said, which worsens the loneliness.

Parry said a marketing perspective sees all these interactions as consumer behaviors, and from there the solution begins with marketing a limit on enveloping oneself in the digital or fictional world.

“Putting screen time notifications into games is an example of a firm saying, ‘We understand that our product in heavy doses can be bad for you, so let’s get outside,’” Parry said.

He said there are no direct solutions to the addictive and isolative tendencies that people may develop, but instead, addressing the things that worsen them will help people in their real lives.

“We’re not going to make any commercials that change lonely people’s lives, but we can break the cycle from loneliness,” Parry said.

Wang also has pursued therapeutic options to test how loneliness can be reduced, specifically, by making a connection mentally with people, places, or things that are meaningful to the self.

She said she has asked lonely people to sit and write about meaningful relationships and then detail a situation where they needed that person, resulting in that person helping. She said recall exercises like these appeared to reduce loneliness, compulsion, and unnecessary consumption.

Wang said during this holiday season, people who do not identify themselves as being lonely should reflect on special connections in their lives to live a more mentally healthy and satisfying life.

“Maybe you’re a college student in a different town, maybe you just moved for work, and so we might feel temporarily lonely,” she said. “If you can’t get together with your friends and family, maybe think about how important these relationships you have are to you.”