The year was 2013. I was in a Target. In the distance, I spy a puffy, bright yellow skirt. I love bright yellow and I love puff, so I had to buy it. After taking it home, I realized: this skirt went with nothing in my wardrobe. That meant, of course, I had to buy things that it would go with. I bought a new top. I bought some pointy heels. Suddenly, this $30 skirt purchase had turned into spending well over a hundred dollars on clothes I never ended up wearing.
This is the “Diderot Effect” in action. I first read about this social phenomenon over at Becoming Minimalist, and I could completely relate.
How the Diderot Effect Works
The Diderot Effect is based on two principles.
- Principle #1: We attach a sense of personal identity to the things we own.
- Principle #2: When something we buy doesn’t match up with our current sense of identity, we keep buying a bunch of other stuff to compensate.
It sounds hokey, confusing, and complicated, but it’s actually pretty common. You’ve probably experienced it yourself.
The concept was named after French philosopher Denis Diderot, who wrote an essay called “Regrets on Parting with My Old Dressing Gown.” In this essay, he talks about receiving a new dressing gown as a gift from a friend. His old gown was fine but, who says no to a free dressing gown, am I right? The problem is, the new gown doesn’t go with any of his other stuff. Diderot writes:
“I was absolute master of my old dressing gown…but I have become a slave to my new one…Beware of the contamination of sudden wealth. The poor man may take his ease without thinking of appearances, but the rich man is always under a strain.”
Poor rich man. Okay, so it’s a little melodramatic, but the point is: when you have money, it’s easy to become ruled by spending. Just like Biggie said: mo money, mo problems.
Tyler Durden Was Right
In Fight Club, Brad Pitt’s character Tyler Durden says, “the things you own end up owning you,”
When I first saw this movie (high school), I was like, “The things I own will never own me!” But that was easy to say. I was broke; I had no choice. I couldn’t afford shit anyway.
But now that I’m older–now that I’ve gotten my finances in order–I do have a little money to spend. And I find Tyler Durden was right. It’s easy to covet materialistic things, to attach this odd sense of identity to them. And this can come at the expense of your financial goals.
What Can You Do About It?
Like most of these social habits, it helps to simply be aware of them in your environment. Commercials, for example, do a great job of selling you on the Diderot Effect.
Target isn’t convincing you to buy a bowl set. Bowl sets are boring. Instead, they’re convincing you to buy a lifestyle–this is why their commercials are filled with pretty people who look hot in cropped jeans and have big, happy families with clean homes filled with good-looking friends. And cute dogs.
Don’t get me wrong. I f-cking love Target. Their home goods are adorable. But that’s the problem.
It also helps to think about the total cost of ownership of whatever I’m buying. For example, if you’re buying a Playstation, consider all of the other things you’ll want to buy to go with it: controllers, a headset, games, a gaming chair.
Another rule that I try to implement with my spending is to spend for the life that I have now. I’ve spent so much money over the years trying to buy for a life I want, rather than the life I have. I’ve bought:
- A paint set, because I wanted to be an artist
- A $100 juicer, because I saw a documentary
- A pair of trendy, lace up heels (from effing Target!) because I wanted to be a fashionista
None of these were based on the reality of my life now. I wear flats 99% of the time, I’m definitely not an artist, and while the juicer was health-conscious, it was an impulsive, irrational decision.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with spending your hard-earned money. But you want to do it consciously, and the Diderot Effect is kind of the opposite of that. If your financial goals are important to you, or if you just don’t want to be ruled by Stuff, mindful spending is everything.
Managing your money is like going to the dentist or standing in line at the DMV. Nobody wants to do it, but at some point, it’s inevitable: you need to clean your teeth, renew your license, and manage your money like a grown-up.
As much as we’d like to believe that our decisions are made rationally… they’re not. Diderot effect is yet another example, fortunately we have smart folks studying this stuff! This is why I’m fascinated with behavioral economics and while it’s not a predictive science, it does explain a lot of the world around us… which is like having a cheat code. 🙂
I love thinking of this stuff as “having a cheat code.” It does come down to self-control, but it’s easier to master self-control when you know exactly what’s going on inside your brain.
For me, the Diderot effect is especially dramatic when decorating my home. You replace the worn out carpeting, which makes your old couch look like something from a frat house, then the new couch makes the lamps look outdated, and that makes the accent chair look out of place, and then you get the urge to redecorate your whole house….it’s a sickness.
The best thing that I have learned from this is take care of your stuff to the best of your ability so it doesn’t start a chain reaction and curate a lot of delayed gratification to combat that mindset to begin with.
Yes, that’s a perfect example of the Diderot Effect in action! And one I can relate to, too. Home goods can quickly spiral into out of control spending. I mean, there’s nothing inherently wrong with updating your home, right? But the key is to be mindful about it, be conscious of your spending. Delayed gratification is a great antidote for thoughtless spending.
I consider myself pretty disciplined with spending but we are in the end human and retailers study human behavior and know how to persuade you to spend. I’m a big fan of Target and sometimes have to stop myself from walking aimlessly around trying to find something to buy that I don’t need. And Fight Club was a great movie with a message that I didn’t really get the first time watching it.
Yeah, Fight Club has an awesome message about consumer culture. Haha, I love Target. But yep, they make it REALLY easy to buy shit you don’t need.
Thanks for giving a name to what I have been feeling lately. My husband and I were getting along fine with our one car and second hand furniture. Then I got pregnant and suddenly I feel a “need” for new furniture and big second car to go with my new mom identity. It also doesn’t help that we live in an affluent area where brand new SUVs and designer strollers are the norm. Hopefully being aware of the Diderot effect can help me let go of my new mom materialism.
It helps to put a label on things sometimes, right? Knowing that this is ” a thing” can help you combat it! I mean, I don’t necessarily think there’s anything wrong with buying new stuff, especially if it makes your life easier and you’ve crunched the numbers and budgeted it in. But I like the way you think–it’s always good to second guess what you assume are needs!
You have to block off a part of your Saturday to get a trash can? I have a solution. Amazon or Target online. Done and done. You’re welcome 😉
The Diderot Effect definitely creeps up during the holidays! I’m somewhat kinda lazy when it comes to home maintenance and being handy in general so I’ve been putting off doing Christmas lights outside the house since we got the place 4 years ago. I figure since I’m laid off I don’t really have an excuse not to do it this year. We end up buying lights which lead us to buy other decorations to help accentuate the lights (in addition to a timer and outdoor extension cords). I almost convinced myself to buy a $70 six foot Darth Vader Christmas blowup thing!
Video games are a great example of the Diderot effect. Those damn things don’t come with a game anymore so you gotta buy games, extra controllers, online subscriptions, etc. Christmas gifts in general fall in this category too bc you might need to buy extra stuff to supplement your gift (new phone–>case, charger).
Tyler Durden is right. All the material things you have own and define you. It’s what you consider important enough in your life to own. So I am my iPhone, I am my crappy Honda, I am my Doctor Who shirt I’m wearing right now.
Ha! I wanted to order on Amazon, but I felt bad for the mail lady. Our apartment is up four flights of stairs and she already brings us so much stuff. I didn’t want to add a giant trashcan to the list 😛
Christmas gifts are one I didn’t think about, but yeah–totally. With a lot of those gifts, you want to buy all of the little accessories that go with them. Good point!
Hi Kristin, I think your post is really most effective, I see this video and find its really true that “Diderot Effect” affect our thinking to great extent.
Cheers
Jessica
I am guilty of falling into the Diderot Effect trap. However, thanks for pointing this out. Now I am more aware of it and less guilty of it (happens to other people as well).
Cheers
MrRicket
http://www.myricketyroad.com
Love this! I actually remember reading a short story in a young adult collection many, many years ago about a girl who got some beautiful new curtains for her bedroom, and then because she had these curtains, she felt like she needed a new dresser to go with them…and a new paint job, and a new bedspread, and a new desk, and on and on. At the end of the story her mom was like, “Wow, those were the most expensive curtains in the world!” For some reason that story always stuck with me, and now after all these years I learn that it was meant as a parable of the Diderot Effect! Thanks for letting me know the name of it. An important concept indeed. 🙂
Yep, that’s another great example! This seems to happen with home goods a lot. I bought a rug once and did the same thing. Interesting concept!
I get the Diderot Effect and of course have seen it in action, but I think I’m immune. I wonder why that is? Genetic cheapness, perhaps? 🙂
You are more frugally evolved. 😀
Hey, Kwong. Great post. I don’t know if this is the Diderot Effect, but every time I see or read about a far-flung land, I want to go there. A short while back I watched a documentary about the Vietnam war on Netflix. Now I’m pestering Mrs. Groovy about spending a month in Vietnam after we retire next year. Succumbing to the Diderot Effect in Target might be better for my financial health.
Haha yeah, I think that’s a bit different, maybe?Tthe Diderot Effect seems to go hand in hand with lifestyle inflation, but then again, traveling a lot is a lifestyle choice, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Either way, I can definitely relate. However, I’d rather spend my money on travel than puffy yellow skirts I never wear 😀
You should check out a book called “Buyology”. It gives the reader insight as towhy we buy what we do…it’s pretty interesting!
Sweet, thanks for the rec! I just put it on my list.