New Haven, CT -- Business professors at Yale University and Duke University may have figured out the Holy Grail of shopping: How to make consumers shop till they drop.

Ravi Dhar, Uzma Khan and Joel Huber have just finished a study of consumer behavior and have discovered that folks who shop often get on a roll and have a hard time stopping at just one item.

The scientists say the so-called "shopping momentum" effect happens when consumers slip from the browsing stage to the buying stage and the psychological impulse to make one purchase carries over to other items.

There is a caveat: Consumers are more likely to stop at one item if it is considered a "guilty pleasure" like candy or a tabloid magazine but are more prone to a shopping spree if the first item is utilitarian, such as back-to-school clothing or a snow blower.

Dhar says the study suggests that retailers who want to promote impulsive buying can drive sales by selling emergency or seasonal goods at reasonable prices.

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