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behavior
A single new purchase triggers an endless cycle of consumption.
Grant McCracken's 1988 book 'Culture and Consumption' introduced the 'Diderot effect' as a sociological concept, interpreting Diderot's 1769 essay to explain consumer behavior.
It was a theoretical and historical analysis, not a scientific study involving the observation of modern consumption habits.
Your purchase is not an end; it is a signal to keep buying.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Grant McCracken (1988)
- What the check found
- McCracken proposed the concept in a sociological text, not through a contemporary scientific study of people replacing belongings. The claim drifts from a conceptual framework to an empirical observation.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.