Good shopping deals like having great sex

According to researchers from the University of Michigan, finding good deals is similar to the feeling of great sex.

The team found that the same part of the brain that is triggered by finding good deals also happens to be the spot where the need for other catalysts of pleasure (like sex) is detected, Bustle.com reported.

Using facial tracking technology, a 30-year-old woman was sent out to find deals at her favourite stores.

They planted a tracker that monitored her brain and then reported the woman's pleasure levels during her shopping trip.

It reached a high point after she found a pair of pants she had always wanted to buy.

"We decided to ask the brain rather than the person. So we had people shop while having their brain scanned with functional MRI. We found again some subtle emotions underlying these shopping decisions," said Scott Rick, who led the study.

"These stores are set up to set off your brain. There are lights, the music. They smell good, so it is really immersing yourself in the feel-good experience," marketing analyst Michelle Madhok was quoted as saying by ABC's Nightline.

However, overpaying gave a completely opposite experience to bargain shoppers, the authors said.