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Wondering why you're comfortable in clutter? Or if your impulsive shopping habit is just plain unnatural? Wency Leung decodes our style-centric behaviour

Benjamin MacDonald/The Globe and Mail

Illustrations by Benjamin MacDonald

Touchy subject

You didn't intend to purchase that pair of buttery leather loafers, nor that sleek cotton dress shirt and exquisitely airy silk scarf. Nevertheless, here you are, walking out of the department store with several new additions to your wardrobe and an unplanned dip into your bank account. What happened?

If you're vulnerable to making impulse purchases, your inquisitive hands may be to blame. Your sense of touch can have a powerful role in determining whether and what you buy.

Joann Peck, associate professor of marketing at the Wisconsin School of Business, has conducted numerous studies on haptics, the science of tactile sensations, and how it influences shoppers. Peck has found that when customers handle an item "they're going to value it more, so they're going to be more likely to purchase it and often to pay more for it," she says, because the action increases people's sense of psychological ownership.

Unlike legal ownership, Peck explains, psychological ownership is when you feel you possess something you don't actually own – or haven't yet purchased. For instance, you may think of the seat you're occupying at a theatre or in a seminar as "your" seat, even though you have no official claim to it. "So, in a store, if you can get people to touch something, they're going to feel a little more ownership than if they don't touch it," she says.

Peck's work may also help explain why specific types of products lend themselves to impulse shopping. (Because let's be honest: If you're going on a shopping spree on a whim, chances are you're buying new clothes and shoes rather than, say, household cleaning products or computer programs.) Certain categories provoke touch more than others, Peck says. Touch is better than any other sense at assessing differences in qualities like weight, texture, hardness and softness, and temperature. "If you think about clothing [which] varies in texture and weight, people are going to be more motivated to touch that than something like software," she says.

The desire for touch may be one reason why some people find browsing online is less satisfying than running their hands through the racks of their favourite boutique. It may also be why the longer you hang onto a purchase or a free-trial item, the less likely you are to return it. Peck says that when people have time to interact with an item and connect with it, they feel more ownership over it. "And it's hard to get rid of things that you really feel ownership over," she says.

Bank account, be damned.

Benjamin MacDonald/The Globe and Mail

Bless your mess

The world is made up of two types of people: those who thrive amidst clutter and those who can't stand it.

If you're one of the messy ones, put down that Marie Kondo book. In fact, go on and toss it into that pile of stuff accumulating in the corner of your room and think no more of it. A 2013 study, published in the journal Psychological Science, conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota found both orderly and disorderly environments promote different, but nonetheless advantageous, behaviours.

The researchers found participants donated more money to charity and were more likely to choose healthy snacks if they were in a neat and tidy room, compared to their counterparts in a disorderly room. This confirmed the results of earlier studies that showed cleanliness and tidiness encourage virtuous behaviour. (A 2009 study in Psychological Science found even the smell of cleanliness, such as the scent of Windex, promotes charitable giving.)

But in their 2013 study, the University of Minnesota researchers found messy environments encouraged test subjects to be more creative and open to novelty. When situated at a conference table strewn with papers, participants came up with more creative ideas during an exercise that asked them to think up new uses for ping-pong balls, compared with those gathered at the table when it was tidy, with papers organized in neat stacks.

"As is the case with many vociferous debates, it seems that both sides have a point," the researchers wrote. "Orderly environments promote convention and healthy choices, which could improve life by helping people follow social norms and boosting well-being. Disorderly environments stimulate creativity, which has widespread importance for culture, business, and the arts."

Maybe that giant pile of clothes is helping you to be more imaginative with your outfits in more ways that one?

Benjamin MacDonald/The Globe and Mail

That's entertainment

From low-lying flower arrangements to chairs with arms, some stylish table-setting tips have wider-reaching benefits.

When it comes to dinner parties, it helps to invite a good mix of guests, but your seating arrangement can mean the difference between a stiff, dull party and a warm, convivial one.

Just ask Sally Augustin. As a Chicago-based environmental psychologist and founder of the firm Design with Science, Augustin relies on peer-reviewed research to advise clients, from service providers and design firms to individuals, about how their interior architecture affects people's interactions and state of mind.

"For someone in my world, seating arrangements are a pretty cool thing," Augustin says. "The coolest part of them, from my perspective, is whether they allow eye contact or not. Because of the kind of animal we are, eye contact is an important way we communicate with each other." Augustin says a round table is the key to an ideal dinner party. A round table invites participation from everyone, Augustin says. Unless you're inviting a high-profile figure or any personality who naturally dominates the room regardless of the situation, you'll likely find your guests at a round table feel "freer to interact" with each other. If you're stuck with a rectangular table, she says, keep in mind that with this configuration, people sitting along the length of the table tend to interact most with their fellow guests sitting directly across from them. So if you want to play matchmaker, don't seat your prospective couple side-by-side, but opposite one another.

Decorating with a floral centrepiece provides guests with a place to naturally rest their gaze during pauses in conversation. Choose "something interesting to look at, but low so it doesn't keep people from seeing each other," says Augustin. And, she adds, make sure the fragrance is subtle. You don't want everything you eat and drink to be overpowered by the scent of lavender. Also, make sure they have adequate elbow room. Gathering around a dining table almost automatically necessitates invading each other's personal space, which varies between individuals, but can be one metre or more. Having chairs with elbow rests helps compensate for this spatial breach by providing a physical barrier between table-mates, Augustin says.

Read more: Odessa Paloma Parker's insight into the importance of evaluating your stock and cultural inventory.