I examine the reasons why most men hate shopping.
hypotheses to explain this phenomenon: .
1) Men hate shopping because of their dreadful experiences of shopping.
with mom while they were growing up, .
2) Men hate shopping because they enjoy task completion rather than .
social interaction,.
3) Men hate shopping because they think that it should be reserved only .
for those at the lower end of the social hierarchy, and.
4) Men only think that they hate shopping because most societies .
define it as a feminine activity. .
I propose to test hypothesis #2, which involves sending groups of either .
men or women shopping in two different situations: one where they shop .
as a social event ("shopping") and another where they shop with the.
goal of task completion ("buying"), while using a portable in vivo .
voltammeter to measure the difference of the dopamine released in the .
nucleus accumbens of the brain in the four different conditions. I predict .
that men will show a decrease in dopamine efflux while shopping, and .
show an increase while buying; the women would show directly opposite.
results.
Every year, on December 24, you see him: while silver bells are ringing, and everyone is meeting "smile after smile," you suddenly notice him: he's stumbling around the mall with a pained expression on his face, a dazed look in his eyes, and his hair standing on end. Finally, he buys the cut-glass wine decanter for a wife who doesn't like wine, simply because the department store had them on display. I've often wondered why men typically wait till the last minute to get cracking on their Christmas shopping - there's no time like Christmas Eve to head for the mall! I've wondered, too, why, when that time of year rolls around (or any time of year, for that matter), I love to go shopping for the day with a gaggle of my sisters or friends to an urban mall like Pacific Centre or Willowbrook Mall, while to my husband that is the epitome of absolute boredom.
