Are you conning yourself when you swear you really would run more if you bought those spiffy new orange Asics Sky Speeds or that you would log 10,000 miles this year if only you had the carbon Specialized S-Works Venge road bike?

Maybe not. If 1,850 older Taiwanese are any indication, you could be improving your odds of a long life.

According to a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the 17 percent of study participants who said they shopped daily “were 27 percent less likely to die.” (Curiously, frequent male shoppers (28 percent) were less likely to die than frequent females (23 percent). According to the study’s authors, frequent shopping may have less to do with actually acquiring things than with being around people and getting out and exercising. Said the authors: “Shopping captures several dimensions of personal well-being, health and security, as well as contributing to the community’s cohesiveness and economy, and may represent or actually confer increased longevity.”

For the record, the majority of shopping being done by the 1,850 older Taiwanese studied wasn’t for $105 sneakers or $9,200 bikes — it was for food. But the point remains: If you think new shoes or wheels will make a difference, go for it. It won’t kill you.

Quite the contrary.