“It was a pattern that Nicole Mead had seen over and over. Her friends would break up with their romantic partners and then go on a shopping spree to compensate: break up and buy, break up and buy, break up and buy. As a marketing and psychology researcher, it was a pattern that fascinated her. So when it came time for the then-Ph.D. candidate Mead to work on her research project, she knew what she wanted to investigate: how social exclusion — and not necessarily just the romantic kind — impacts spending. Anecdotal evidence had already suggested that retail was the new rebound, but Mead wanted to know how far people would go to mend their bruised ego or broken heart.” - × × ×