“Blue Monday”, the most depressing day of the year which is actually just an advertising concept

2024-01-15 11:02:23

For around fifteen years, the expression « Blue Monday » reappears in January on social networks and in the media… The “most depressing Monday of the year” falls this year on January 15, in a particularly gloomy context.

Problem: this concept, allegedly based on the scholarly calculations of a psychologist, only exists in the minds of marketing experts. Deciphering this “false” with commercial aims, far removed from real psychological problems.

Where does this invention come from?

Blue Monday (which is inspired by the English expression to feel blue“to be depressed”) would irrefutably designate the third Monday in January as the most depressing day of the year… according to an alleged scientific study published in 2005, which is based on the following equation:

Why is it wrong

• This equation is more of a joke than arithmetic: certain factors are unquantifiable (weather, lack of motivation, etc.).

• Its author, Cliff Arnall, who presents himself as a psychologist, himself admitted in 2010 that there was nothing scientific behind this calculation, and that it had been commissioned by an advertising company on behalf of the travel agency Sky Travel. Ironically, he has since campaigned for its “abolition” as part of a campaign sponsored by the tourist committee of the Canary Islands (Spain).

“These kinds of calculations threaten the public’s understanding of science and psychology. It is also disrespectful to those who suffer from real depression, because it implies that it is a temporary and minor experience that everyone suffers from.”, recalls neuroscience researcher Dean Burnett in the Guardian.

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Beyond the moral problem posed by the propagation of pseudoscience, Blue Monday, which was only a commercial operation, can also encourage a worrying phenomenon of compulsive spending. According to a study conducted by a British institute, the Money and Mental Health Institute, out of 5,500 people suffering from mental disorders, nine out of ten people spend more money when they don’t feel well. Purchases trigger a feeling of guilt, which can lead to other purchases to ” to feel better “… triggering a vicious circle well described by many psychologists.

[Une première version de cet article a été publiée en janvier 2019.]

Mental health: useful sites, books and numbers

Sites Internet

– Public Health resources France ;

– Psycom, information site on mental health ;

– Step by step, new information site on mental health aimed at young people ;

– CléPsy, practical sheets for families ;

– sleep better during confinement: advice for adults and children ;

– Alloecouteado.org.

Livres

– The 4 Times of rebirth: post-traumatic stress is not inevitableby Michel Lejoyeux (JC Lattès, 193 pages, 19.90 euros);

– Trauma, how to get out of it? by Coraline Hingray and Wissam El-Hage (De Boeck Supérieur, 192 pages, 19.95 euros);

– From confinement to deconfinement : new perspectives in child psychiatry. Under the direction of Sylvie Tordjman, Carmen Schröder, Richard Delorme. Free eBook to download.

Phone numbers

– Covid-19 coronavirus information: 0800-130-000 (toll-free number);

– Hello childhood in danger: 119, or Allo119.gouv.fr.

Mathilde Damgé

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