Eager shoppers follow 'primal instincts'

For those who shake their heads in disbelief at Black Friday enthusiasts, consider this: These shoppers might simply have been responding to primal instincts.

Black Friday is supposed to offer the biggest and best deals of the holiday season, if not the year, so all those folks who flocked to stores Thursday night and Friday morning were simply doing their best to get scarce and limited deals, say some who study consumer behavior and psychology.

To be sure, the very practical aim of getting a steep discount remains at Black Friday's core -- and sometimes brings out the worst in people. But these shoppers often are also motivated by many other social cues and social rewards, such as the bonding experience among friends and family who traditionally go out as a group and the camaraderie of fellow shoppers.

Black Friday also offers bragging rights for nabbing a precious product at such a low price. Then there's the absolution of undisciplined spending on that day because, well, everyone else is doing it, too.

"The principles we are talking about are primal; they are hard-wired into us; this is who we are," said Dan Norris, director of training at Influence at Work, a consulting organization in Tempe, Ariz. "If you think about our ancestors, if there was a resource you were unlikely to be able to get, it was in your best interest to do everything you could to secure it."

This idea of scarcity is conveyed to consumers in powerful ways, from advertisements touting deals "while supplies last" to news reports showing lines forming hours before stores open.

The bigger the line and the earlier the line forms implies that there's a good deal, said Tom Meyvis, associate professor of marketing at New York University's Stern School of Business. The experience of standing in that line can be fun because it gives shoppers a sense of being special, he said.

"Especially given such a weird event, you realize you are weird and you are with weird people and that's fun, sort of like a 'Star Trek' convention," Meyvis said.

Just as compelling is the idea of tradition, Norris said. That's one of the main reasons Jessica Lombardo, 24, of Deer Park, goes out early every Black Friday with her mom, best friend and that friend's mom.

"Some people say, 'You're so crazy, you spend all this money,' " said Lombardo, a high school teacher. "But we really don't because in October and November, we don't buy anything and wait until Black Friday. I do watch out for the whole rest of the season to see if prices do get lower, and very rarely do they get lower than Black Friday morning."