IStock Photo 5080700 © Korhan Hasim Isik

Let’s play a word association game. Today’s term: Compulsive shopping. What springs to mind? A desperate housewife whose closet doors strain against hundreds of pairs of designer jeans and shoes? A mother who hides the fact that she can’t stop going to the mall or ordering from the Home Shopping Network because she’s ashamed it’s depleting the kids’ college savings? A successful professional who cuts up her credit cards because she can’t control herself?

Legendary spenders such as shoe-aholic Imelda Marcos reinforce the stereotype that shopping addicts are overwhelmingly women. And medical professionals who treat people struggling with compulsive shopping—classified as an impulse control disorder—report that far more of their patients are women than men.

But actual purchasing behavior does not back up the stereotype. In the first study of its kind, a 2006 survey of 2,500 adults in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that men are almost as likely to be compulsive buyers as women. It reported that the odds a woman is a compulsive buyer are 1 in 16.67 (6%), while the odds a man is a compulsive buyer are 1 in 18.18 (5.5%).

Why, then, is it considered a women’s issue? It could simply be a double standard. William Randolph Hearst acquired so many pieces of art and antiques he couldn’t cram it all into his six houses, yet he was branded not as a shopaholic but as an eccentric collector, even a connoisseur.

And more women may be treated for the disorder because they may be more likely than men to seek help. In other words, there could be just as many guys out there furtively hoarding excessive purchases; they just don’t call Shopaholics Anonymous as often.

Therapists have noticed gender differences in motivation and reward among compulsive shoppers. Women are often motivated by depression and feel comforted while they shop, while men shop because they’re anxious or angry and feel exhilarated when they buy. Either way, money is spent and goods pile up. It may very well be that men and women are more alike than not in an unhealthy desire for a little (or a lot of) material comfort.