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A Shopping-Scanner Darkly
An anonymous reader writes "Using functional MRI scans, researchers have found which parts of the brain are active when people consider buying something and can predict whether or not they'll ultimately bite. One of the main findings was that rather than weighing a choice between the pleasure of making a purchase and the delayed gratification of using the dough for something else, the brain is actually weighing between the pleasure of buying and the pain of forking over the cash."
This is why the financial advice that you always pay cash, not by check or credit card, helps you keep within your budget. I seem to recall that people cut expenses by 30% or so once they started forking over 2-3 $20s for dinner with a friend instead of a little piece of plastic.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
Who modded this off-topic? The title is indeed a clear reference to Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly . As Dick was possibly schizophrenic and much of his work was about human perception and possible alternative functionings of the brain, it makes sense. The parent should've been modded up as informative.