Imagine you're a young professional who has recently started earning a decent salary. One day, you decide to treat yourself to a luxury wristwatch. You feel ecstatic about your purchase until you realize that your relatively modest clothes seem out of place next to it. Suddenly, you find yourself upgrading your entire wardrobe, which leads to purchasing matching accessories, and before you know it, you've far exceeded your initial budget. You have unknowingly fallen victim to the Diderot Effect, a phenomenon named after the French philosopher Denis Diderot.
The Diderot Effect is a social phenomenon related to consumer behaviour, suggesting that a single luxury purchase often leads to a spiral of additional purchases. The concept comes from Diderot's essay "Regrets on Parting with My Old Dressing Gown," in which he laments how a new dressing gown made his otherwise satisfactory furnishings appear drab and mismatched.
Diderot’s experience can be framed into two principles:
Goods are interlinked: Once we buy a new item, we compare it with our existing items. If they don’t fit together aesthetically, we want to upgrade those as well.
Desire for coherence: We crave for a coherent identity. If a possession seems out of sync with our perceived identity, we endeavour to fix the inconsistency, often leading to a string of unplanned purchases.
As a young professional, understanding the Diderot Effect can help you inspire better spending habits, reduce clutter, and ultimately save money. By being more conscious of the interconnectedness of purchases and making more mindful decisions, you can resist the urge to buy unnecessary items. This won't just positively impact your personal life but will also contribute to a more sustainable and ecologically respectful life overall.