Yesterday I wrote that there’s never been a better time to be a consumer. Said so in the context of a story about friendly Berkeley researchers who use neuroscience to turn us all into more productive shoppers. It was a sarcastic comment.

According to our colleagues at the AP via Seattle Post-Intelligencer, there have been better times to be a confident consumer:

“Over the past year, consumer confidence has deteriorated greatly, underscoring the toll of the housing collapse and a credit crunch that has made it harder for people to secure financing for big-ticket purchases such as homes, cars and appliances.”

Haven’t the neuroscience folks concluded that insecurity, fear and jealousy are the top consumer motivators? If so, we should celebrate low consumer confidence as a positive indicator!

I’ll admit that preying on peoples’ low self-esteem is somehow contrary to human nature… yet in the absence of brain scan data, such moralism is scientifically meaningless. Carry on scholars.