Some shoppers walk into a store, spot something they like and immediately head toward the checkout. Others seem to have a completely different strategy. They walk through every aisle, compare prices, look at several versions of the same product and sometimes return to something they noticed at the entrance before finally making a decision. To an impatient companion, this can look unnecessarily slow. But psychology suggests that this behavior may sometimes reflect deliberative decision-making , self-control and an attempt to reduce the influence of immediate emotional impulses. It does not mean every person who walks through an entire store has unusually strong self-control. However, deliberately delaying a purchase can create psychological distance between the initial temptation and the eventual decision.
