(Radio Iowa) – Black Friday is just a few weeks away, launching another holiday shopping season, but a University of Iowa study finds people who are lonely may find themselves unable to resist the impulse to buy. Marketing Professor Alice Wang, in the U-I’s Tippie College of Business, says loneliness is different for everyone, but if someone perceives themselves as having a relationship deficit, they may be more susceptible to compulsive shopping.

In the U-I study, Wang says they asked people to think about their existing relationships, and to elaborate on them in writing, perhaps how your current friends helped you through a tough time. Such an exercise can help to change perspectives, she says, and change habits.

Of course, there’s no magic number of friends we all require, it depends on the individual, but Wang says some of us may benefit from focusing less on what we don’t have and more on all we -do- have.

As we near the holidays, she suggests people who may be feeling lonely and isolated take stock of the good things in their lives, possessions -and- people, and work to monitor themselves so they don’t buy things they don’t need.