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the Veblen effect

Rats of MultaRats of Multa Posts: 250
edited April 2008 in A Moving Train
..feeling a bit guilty once in awhile about spending so much time chiming into others' threads and discussions without often contributing much of my own,...

found this article on google without much effort, and really find it fascinating how this "study" [that is psychological (and that is by no means definitive)] may even reveal factors which are contributing to the various political systems around the globe. the topic of the article is not nearly so far reaching, but the implications could be infinite.

anyway, hope you enjoy,...

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article.asp?id=7645
we don’t know just where our bones will rest,
to dust i guess,
forgotten and absorbed into the earth below,..
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • MojopinMojopin Posts: 216
    A good read. And interesting subject actually...
    "A consistently good band works all the different elements well. A song has to appeal sentimentally, intellectually, physically, viscerally, and dig deep down into your soul and suck you into it. And after that, of course, it'd be a matter of taste." ~ Kim Thayil from Soundgarden
  • AbookamongstthemanyAbookamongstthemany Posts: 8,209
    Reminds me of the book Skinny Legs and All, recommended to me by a poster here. :)

    I've always had a gripe with this. Is it that hard to just choose what you like or want based on your own initial perception minus the outside influences? I mean who are you? Don't you want to know that person and give them a chance first?

    Did you see my thread on conformity?
    If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    -Oscar Wilde
  • OutOfBreathOutOfBreath Posts: 1,804
    It's not so much about conformity. Rather that our expectations form a vital part of how we perceive things. If we expect something to be good, we most likely will find it good. If something is expensive, it's gotta be good, so we enjoy it more.

    Veblen, by the way, formed the theories of conspicuous consumption and the leisure class, positing that a central role in consumption is showing it off, and that the middle class will always try to emulate the elite, or leisure class. That inlcudes unecessary spending, just to show that you can, and buying and doing the things that are associated with wealth and the elite.

    This study goes straight into this. If we expect a wine to be expensive (thus sort of "unnecessary" and viewed as a wine that the elite might drink) we enjoy it more. Again, expectations is half the experience, at least.

    Peace
    Dan
    "YOU [humans] NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?" - Death

    "Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." - Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965
  • AbookamongstthemanyAbookamongstthemany Posts: 8,209
    OutOfBreath wrote:
    It's not so much about conformity. Rather that our expectations form a vital part of how we perceive things. If we expect something to be good, we most likely will find it good. If something is expensive, it's gotta be good, so we enjoy it more.

    Veblen, by the way, formed the theories of conspicuous consumption and the leisure class, positing that a central role in consumption is showing it off, and that the middle class will always try to emulate the elite, or leisure class. That inlcudes unecessary spending, just to show that you can, and buying and doing the things that are associated with wealth and the elite.

    This study goes straight into this. If we expect a wine to be expensive (thus sort of "unnecessary" and viewed as a wine that the elite might drink) we enjoy it more. Again, expectations is half the experience, at least.

    Peace
    Dan

    Where I was coming from was if something is expensive it is due to a higher demand thus popular. If people see that something is expensive, they figure that it has already been deemed worthy of the price in most cases by other consumers who have bought and tried it or else the product won't be on the market very long.

    I have never looked at expensive items as being 'unnecessary' really or at least not as an attraction point, anyways. I've always figured that people have placed a higher value on said product due to either a higher quality or a perceived higher quality.
    If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    -Oscar Wilde
  • Rats of MultaRats of Multa Posts: 250
    Abookamongstthemany wrote:
    Reminds me of the book Skinny Legs and All, recommended to me by a poster here. :)

    I've always had a gripe with this. Is it that hard to just choose what you like or want based on your own initial perception minus the outside influences? I mean who are you? Don't you want to know that person and give them a chance first?

    Did you see my thread on conformity?


    sorry C, cant remember the conformity thread.

    i feel ya on the choose what you like on your own thing, although often outside influences are so numerous as to be unavoidable. i think the case goes so far that the basic function of choosing frequently becomes less about taste (directly) and more about discovering/deciding why one's desires exist as they do, almost as an editing or eliminating (sorting?) of whatever outside influences may be subconsciously determining the nature of one's tastes (decisions?).

    not sure if that makes any sense, but i think just maybe it might, to a Tom Robbins fan.
    we don’t know just where our bones will rest,
    to dust i guess,
    forgotten and absorbed into the earth below,..
  • Rats of MultaRats of Multa Posts: 250
    OutOfBreath wrote:
    It's not so much about conformity. Rather that our expectations form a vital part of how we perceive things. If we expect something to be good, we most likely will find it good. If something is expensive, it's gotta be good, so we enjoy it more.

    Veblen, by the way, formed the theories of conspicuous consumption and the leisure class, positing that a central role in consumption is showing it off, and that the middle class will always try to emulate the elite, or leisure class.

    ...That inlcudes unecessary spending, just to show that you can, and buying and doing the things that are associated with wealth and the elite.


    interesting stuff. this middle paragraph above is one of the concepts that draws me to this topic, because in art especially reputation becomes centralized in terms of evaluating quality and value, yet meanwhile there are elements and degrees of quality and value that can be imbued into works of art---whether 2-dimensional abstract imagery, the row of townhomes down the street, or a magical donut from the local baker---without consideration for elitists' worths and preferences,.. and thus social-systems based upon reputation tend to fail in regards to maximizing the true potentials of quality available in-lieu of lesser quality products with a higher "pre-established" worth.

    i think this very same type of phenomenon is occurring in america's political processes these days, and i think the media plays an enormous role in sustaining such corruptions as normal and reasonably-acceptable forms of culture,... whether knowingly or unwittingly i am not sure however,....??
    we don’t know just where our bones will rest,
    to dust i guess,
    forgotten and absorbed into the earth below,..
  • Rats of MultaRats of Multa Posts: 250
    sleeptime.
    we don’t know just where our bones will rest,
    to dust i guess,
    forgotten and absorbed into the earth below,..
  • Rats of MultaRats of Multa Posts: 250
    no debate?
    we don’t know just where our bones will rest,
    to dust i guess,
    forgotten and absorbed into the earth below,..
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