Britain is a 'nation of bargain hunters'

Briton's get a certain mental satisfaction from finding a good bargain, according to a behavioural study carried out by a leading neuropsychologist.

Dr David Lewis found that shoppers were stimulated most when faced with a particularly satisfying saving. Heart rates registered higher when a saving of £150 was made on a washing machine than when posed with photos of the opposite sex, riding a roller coaster and even when experiencing that elusive 'love at first sight'.

The reason for this, Mr Lewis explains, is threefold: "People get a buzz from finding a bargain partly because it means you can make your disposable income go further, partly because it makes you feel smart about yourself, and partly because you feel you have got one over on the big stores.

"If you got a really good bargain on something, you tell all your friends and neighbours, because in a sense it shows how clever you have been."

This is certainly something that translates to the financial world. The prevalence of comparison websites show that consumers are always looking for the best possible deal. We shop around for the best mortgage rates, insurance premiums and credit card offers.

The macro-economic conditions are sure to have an impact on how much Brits seek out the best bargains.

"When times are very good and money is very flush maybe we don’t think quite so much what the price of things are but when we have to watch the pennies we are obviously more concerned about what we have to pay and trying to get the best price we can," Mr Lewis said.

The evidence found by Mr Lewis is mirrored by a study carried out by T-Mobile. The mobile phone network discovered that 75 per cent of us seek out a bargain once a week, while one in ten hunt for a special deal seven or more times a week.

One need look no further than the congestion of Britain's high streets and hubbub that surrounds the January sales every year to see how much Brits love the sales.

Americans, however, take the cut-price cake when it comes to sale-time disruption. During the annual Black Friday sale event in 2011 a woman used pepper spray on ten people when trying to get herself an Xbox in California, while another man was shot at a Walmart in the same state.

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2012-02-21 13:18:54 © Moneyextra.com