If you're sad and shopping, watch your wallet: A new study shows people's spending judgment goes out the window when they're down, especially if they're a bit self-absorbed.

Study participants who watched a sadness-inducing video clip offered to pay nearly four times as much money to buy a water bottle than a group that watched an emotionally neutral clip.

The so-called "misery is not miserly" phenomenon is well-known to psychologists, advertisers and personal shoppers alike, and has been documented in a similar study in 2004.

The new study released Friday by researchers from four universities goes further, trying to answer whether temporary sadness alone can trigger spendthrift tendencies.

The study found a willingness to spend freely by sad people occurs mainly when their sadness triggers greater "self-focus." That response was measured by counting how frequently study participants used references to "I," "me," "my" and "myself" in writing an essay about how a sad situation such as the one portrayed in the video would affect them personally.

The brief video was about the death of a boy's mentor. Another group watched an emotionally neutral clip about the Great Barrier Reef, the vast coral reef system off Australia's coast.

On average, the group watching the sad video offered to pay nearly four times as much for a sporty-looking, insulated water bottle than the group watching the nature video, according to the study by researchers from Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford and Pittsburgh universities.

Thirty-three study subjects - young adults who responded to an advertisement offering $10 for participation - were offered the chance to trade some of the $10 to buy the bottle. The sad group offered to trade an average of $2.11, compared with 56 cents for the neutral group.

Despite the big difference, participants in the sad group typically insisted that the video's emotional content didn't affect their willingness to spend more - an incorrect assumption, said one of the study's co-authors.

"This is a phenomenon that occurs without awareness," Jennifer Lerner, a Harvard professor who studies emotion and decision making, said in a phone interview. "This is really different from the idea of retail therapy, where people are feeling negative and want to cheer themselves up by shopping. People have no idea this is going on."

The researchers concluded sadness can trigger a chain of emotions leading to extravagant tendencies. Sadness leads people to become more focused on themselves, causing the person to feel that they and their possessions are worth little. That feeling increases willingness to pay more - presumably to feel better about themselves.

"Because the study used real commodities and real money, results hold implications for everyday decisions," according to the authors of the study, to be published in the journal Psychological Science, and presented Saturday at a meeting of the Society for Social and Personality Psychology.

Edward Charlesworth, a Houston-based clinical psychologist who was not involved in the study, suggested the misery-is-not-miserly phenomenon is rooted in a culture that encourages people to buy to feel better.

"Certainly, the advertising industry knows that," Charlesworth, citing as an example a 1970s McDonald's fast-food jingle, "You deserve a break today."

Charlesworth frequently sees clients in his clinical practice who overspend to deal with difficulties.

"It's not necessarily that you go to the mall and go on a shopping spree," said Charlesworth, author of a book on stress management. "It's often more subtle - you spend a bit more on something than you normally would. But if you magnify that over the course of a year, or a lifetime, those little things add up."

Personal shoppers, who make a business of prowling the aisles for others, say they frequently see clients stray from their budgets when they're feeling blue.

"At that point, cost isn't usually a factor," said Kalyn Johnson, of New York City-based Style by Kalyn Johnson. "They say, 'If I can have these wonderful shoes, I'll look better, and feel better.'

"But on the back end, I've seen buyer's remorse. This kicks in after they realize that new pair of shoes, or iPod, or whatever, didn't make them feel better, and then there's that sense of, 'Oh my God, why did I spend money on this?"'

The study released Friday was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health. Besides Lerner, the other study authors were Carnegie Mellon's Cynthia Cryder, Stanford's James Gross, and the University of Pittsburgh's Ronald Dahl.

如果你在伤心时购物，当心你的钱包：一项新的研究表明人们在情绪低落时，尤其是当他们只关注自己时，花钱的判断力就会化为乌有。

参与这项研究的人员，在观看过一段由研究人员提供的伤感影片后，与那些观看中性色彩的影片的人员相比，多花了近4倍价钱去买一瓶水。

这就是为众多心理学家所知道的所谓的“伤心不吝啬”现象，广告商和店老板也是一样，在2004年在一次相似的试验中被记录下来。

这项由4所大学的研究人员参与的研究在周五公布，更进一步回答了是否短暂的悲伤能够导致有挥霍钱财的倾向。

研究发现，伤心的人，当他们的悲伤引起更大的“自我集中”时，更愿意无节制地挥霍钱财。这一个回答可以通过计算参与研究的人员在写关于悲伤的状态文章，如描述影片的内容影响到他自己时，有多频繁使用 "I," "me," "my" and "myself"等词来衡量。

这是关于一个男孩导师之死的短片，另一组观看的是关于澳大利亚海岸巨大的珊瑚礁，大堡礁的中性色彩的影片。

根据来自哈佛，卡耐基.麦伦，斯坦福和匹兹堡4所大学的研究人员的研究发现，一般来说，看伤感影片的人比那些看自然风光影片的人，要多花近4倍的钱在那些华而不实的瓶装水上。

33个研究对象－给参与研究的年轻成年人每人10美元－给他们一个机会去买水，看伤感影片的那一组平均化2.11美元，另一组只花了56美分。

一位论文的共同作者说，不管这个很大的差别，悲伤的那组参与者，典型的坚持说影片的情绪并没有影响到他们多花钱－一个不正确的消费观。

哈佛大学一位研究情感和决定的詹妮弗.勒纳教授在电话采访中说：“这种现象的发生是无意识的，这真的与零售疗法的观念不同，那是一种人们感到消极时希望通过购物使自己打起精神的方法。人们不知道这种事情还会继续”。

研究者得出结论，悲伤能够导致极度挥霍的倾向。悲伤使人们将精力更多的集中到自己身上，这就导致人们认为财产不重要了。这种感觉使得人们花更多的钱－大概这样可以使他们感觉好一点。

根据论文的作者说，“因为研究使用的是真钱和真实的商品，结果可以推广到日常的决定”。论文将要发表在《心理学科学》上，在周六的社会和个性心理学学会上发布了研究成果。

位于休斯敦的临床心理学家，没有参与此项研究的爱德华.查利沃兹也表示，“伤心不吝啬”现象在一个有鼓励人们购物感觉就会好的文化基础上”。

查利沃兹引用70年代麦当劳快餐口号“You deserve a break today”来说明。当然了，广告企业懂得这个道理。”　

查利沃兹经常在他的诊所见到用过度花钱来处理困难的病人。

一本有关管理的书的作者查利沃兹说：“去超市或疯狂购物没有这个必要，更不可思议的是－你花更多精力在你不常做的事情上。但是，如果你把这个过程扩大到一年活一生的时间，这些事情就会堆积起来。”

在过道上来回走动以招揽生意的个体店主说，他们经常看见顾客伤心时花钱会超出预算。

纽约时尚的创立者凯琳.约翰逊说：“那时，费用不是主要的。”他们说：‘如果我有一双漂亮的鞋子，我看起来会更好，感觉也会好。’

“但是，过后，我就会看到买东西的人后悔。这发生在他们买过一双新鞋或IPOD或任何不能令他们感觉好的东西之后，然后就会有一种“天哪，我为什么要花钱买这个”的感觉。

这项周五公布的研究经国家科学基金会和国家健康机构的批准。除了勒纳之外，其它的论文作者是卡耐基.麦伦大学的辛西亚.克莱德，斯坦福的詹姆斯.格罗斯，匹兹堡大学的罗纳德.达赫。