We buy things that we don't need. The Diderot Effect: Why We Want Things We Don't Need - And What To Do About It

The famous French philosopher Denis Diderot lived almost his entire life in poverty, but the turning point came in 1765.

By that time, Diderot was 52 years old and his daughter was going to get married, but her father did not have the funds for a dowry. Despite his lack of wealth, Diderot's name was widely known as he co-founded and authored a monumental work called the Encyclopedie, one of the most comprehensive encyclopedias of the time.

When Catherine the Great, Empress of the Russian Empire, learned of Diderot's financial difficulties, she offered to sell her a personalized library for £ 1,000, which today equals approximately $ 50,000.

This successful deal saved Diderot from shame in many ways. He could afford a lot and soon acquired a new purple robe (the ceremonial outerwear or mantle of monarchs or kings of purple or scarlet color). From that moment on, the problems began.

Diderot effect

Diderot's outfit was incredibly beautiful. So beautiful that everything else in his clothes and decoration of his home looked ridiculous and sloppy, and this disheartened Diderot. He saw the only way out of this situation only in buying new things.

First, he replaced his old carpet with a new one from Damascus. He decorated his home with sculptures and a beautiful kitchen table, bought a new mirror and a leather chair.

Nowadays, the craving for such spontaneous purchases is called the Diderot effect. This effect describes a situation when buying a new thing creates a so-called spiral of consumption, that is, leads to the purchase of other new things. As a result, we keep buying things that we don't really need.

Portrait of Denis Diderot. Artist - Louis-Michel (Louis-Michel), 1767. In the painting Diderot is depicted in attire very similar to the one whose purchase once provoked the Diderot effect.

Why do we have cravings for things we don't need?

The Diderot effect should not be underestimated: unfortunately, we are all prone to making unreasonable and ill-considered purchases. You can buy a new car and, in addition to it, buy a bunch of different gadgets and equipment: a tire pressure gauge, a car charger for a mobile phone, an extra umbrella for a car, a first aid kit, a pen knife, a flashlight, a life blanket, and even what - a knife for cutting seat belts.

You can find a similar pattern of behavior in other areas of life:

1. You buy a new dress and be sure to buy new shoes and earrings for it.
2. You buy a gym membership and consider it imperative to buy a new sports uniform.
3. You buy a new sofa and think: maybe it is worth updating other elements of your interior as well?

This is the nature of man: we do not simplify something, we do not reduce it to a minimum, but on the contrary - we enrich, increase, develop.

How to control the Diderot effect?

The Diderot Effect teaches us to focus on what matters most. There are too many things around us, and our resources are limited, so it is useful to be able to separate the main from the secondary. How to do it? You can try this:

1. Avoid triggers. Almost every habit is activated by some kind of trigger. One quick way to reduce the power of the Diderot effect is to avoid the triggers that contribute to it. Unsubscribe from e-commerce newsletters. Call the retail stores that send you product catalogs and unsubscribe. Meet your friends in the park, not at the mall. Block your access to your favorite online stores.

2. Choose products that go well with existing items. If you adhere to this principle, then when buying a new dress or sofa, you will not be tempted to buy something for them. Buying electronics? Make sure you already have all the adapters and adapters available for connecting your equipment.

3. Set limits. Limit your shopping. Designate a specific amount that you will not spend more, and keep your word.

4. Bought one, gave one. Every time you buy something new, give your old thing away. Have you bought a new TV? Give someone an old one. Do not move it to another room, just give it to someone for free. The idea is to avoid accumulating things in your home. Leave with you only what brings you joy and happiness.

5. Spend a month without shopping. Don't allow yourself even the smallest purchase next month. Instead of buying a new lawnmower, borrow one from your neighbor. The more we limit ourselves, the more conscious our behavior becomes.

6. Do not be led by your desires. Of course, no one will ever reach this level of awareness. We always want something. We always strive to acquire something that will be better than the previous one. But such a line of behavior will only lead you to permanent frustration: you bought a new car, but after a while you wanted another, more expensive one, and so on. Not having received satisfaction from one, you are already drawn to another. Know how to enjoy what you already have.

Every morning you open your wardrobe, glance over a heap of things, and none of them makes you want to wear it. Common situation? Or here's another one: you go into the store “for just a minute” and find yourself an hour and a half later with bags of things - you return home and realize that it was hardly worth buying this sweater with strange embroidery and a dress that you walk out only once, and then is not a fact. What makes us buy so many unnecessary things? And how to get out of this vicious circle? We decided to understand the issue and give some useful tips on how to avoid spontaneous shopping.

Chasing trends

The rule “everyone ran, and I ran” sometimes even applies to dedicated shopping ascetics. When you regularly come across articles about the main purchases of the season and the hottest trends, you involuntarily fall for the hook: buy this thing immediately. The fashion industry is a huge business machine whose job it is to sell you as many (often) unnecessary clothing as possible. But the reality is that most of those same trends have a short lifespan: a season, two or three at the most.

Way out. Don't try to buy up all the must-haves of the season at once. Instead of updating your wardrobe every season, create a base of things that you really like / go for and just complement them with more fashionable positions. Learn to listen to yourself: do you really like this or that trend or is the effect of mass insanity triggered?

ImYanis / shutterstock

Aggressive Marketing

The modern economy and advertising in general work to artificially increase demand. Promotion of products follows a simple scheme: an attractive image creates the illusion that if we buy this product, we will be able to approach the image in the picture or get the life we \u200b\u200bdream of. In the context of clothing, everything happens exactly the same. We see photos of bloggers on Instagram or an advertising campaign with a beautiful model and we think that buying a bag, shoes or a dress will make us as successful / beautiful / desirable as the heroines who promote them. But in fact, everything is much more prosaic: many fashionable must-haves look great on models and not very adequately on ordinary people, and goods that are not obviously promoted in promoted Instagram accounts turn out to be only well-paid advertising.

Way out. Try to adequately assess, firstly, the suitability of the advertised things for ordinary people and, secondly, the correspondence of certain trends / things to your lifestyle. If you live in central Russia and do not have personal transport, it is unlikely that any sleepers with fur will be useful for you longer than a couple of months a year. Living in the modern world, it is impossible to completely abstract from the pressure of advertising, but you can control its impact.

Too low prices

Since the mass market was at the forefront of the fashion industry, the process of producing and consuming clothing has taken on gigantic proportions. The statistics are frightening: more than 80 billion wardrobe items are consumed annually in the world, and in the United States alone, the volume of textile waste is more than 15 million tons per year. Cheap clothing contributes to the fact that now we can buy more: a low price increases demand at times. It is tempting to be able to possess a lot of things for relatively little money, but this is often just a deceiving impression. Just figure out how much you paid in aggregate for a dozen T-shirts that became unusable after a couple of washings, synthetic dresses that turned out to be impossible to walk in in the heat, and leatherette shoes that tortured your feet.

Way out. We have said this more than once, but we will repeat:. You don't need to completely abandon it, but get down to business wisely: study the composition of the fabrics and the quality of the seams, the relevance of the thing for the next few seasons and the convenience of the model. It is often really much more economical to buy one thing more expensive, but of better quality, than several cheaper analogs. This rule also applies to sales: you should not spend money on something just because you are offered it with a 70% discount or more.

Africa Studio / shutterstock

Spontaneous shopping

Often we go shopping just like that, with no purpose - to unwind, kill time or cheer up. Such situations most often lead to spontaneous shopping: they seem to have bought a thing, but they themselves did not understand why. But buying just for the sake of buying is almost always impractical: most likely, it will hang in the closet like a dead weight. Sometimes the very fact of acquisition, possession is important to us, and what exactly is the tenth thing. Psychologists believe that the process of buying something makes us feel more important - I have (the thing / opportunity to buy), therefore, I exist.

Way out. Try not to go shopping (online or offline - it doesn't matter) out of boredom or in a bad mood: the feeling of wasted time can make you buy "at least something", so as not to leave the store empty-handed. Do you remember that experts advise not to go shopping on an empty stomach and always have a list of essential foods with you? It's the same here: before shopping, make a list of the wardrobe items you need / want to buy and follow the plan. The more detailed the description of the item (dress with a floral print of midi length, black straight-cut trousers with a belt), the lower the chance of missing. But do not deprive yourself of the opportunity to go beyond the established framework - it happens that instead of jeans for every day you come across the perfect jacket that you have been looking for for a long time, and even at a nice price. As a last resort, you always have at least two weeks to keep your item or return it to the store, so be sure to keep your receipts.

Items not suitable for size / style / season

Each of us at least once in our life bought things “for the future”. Does the skirt fit tightly at the waist? Nothing, there will be an incentive to lose weight. Is the shirt a couple sizes larger? You can sew. Shoes that are unbearably tight? Are carried. In reality, the result is almost always the same: we never manage to lose weight to the desired size (or by that time the thing is out of fashion), there is always no time to take the shirt in the atelier, and the shoes, even after professional stretching, continue to unbearably rub our feet ... Out-of-season clothes are often the same story - it is likely that after a few months you will simply stop liking them.

Way out. Let's be honest: the “Buy now, I'll wear it sometime later” setting almost never works. Make it a rule to buy only those things that you can wear now - well, or in the near future. Especially when it comes to the mass market: hemming can cost you almost half the price you gave in the store. As for off-season shopping, the only exceptions are classic wardrobe items (for example, a tailored coat that fits you perfectly) or things that you really like.

fiphoto / shutterstock

Deceiving fitting rooms and overly helpful consultants

It's no secret that one of the main tools that stores use to stimulate sales are the right mirrors and fitting room lights, which make us slimmer and more attractive. Or, on the contrary, it happens that after trying on it seems to us that we urgently need to lose weight by at least five kilograms and in general it is impossible to live with such an appearance, let alone buy new clothes. Caring consultants who are ready to shower us with compliments and offer models that "will definitely suit you", just not to let us leave the store without a purchase, also add fuel to the fire.

Way out. If you feel that you cannot make a decision without help, take someone you trust with you to shopping. The best friend / boyfriend / mom who can’t tell objectively whether these pants are dyeing you or not doesn’t count. After the purchase, try on the thing at home again and look at yourself in a familiar mirror and with the best lighting - of course, this is not a panacea, but this way you will have a picture closer to reality in your head.

The famous French philosopher Denis Diderot lived most of his life in poverty, but that all changed in 1765. Diderot turned 52 when his daughter decided to get married. But there was one problem - she did not have a dowry. Diderot was not wealthy, but his name was widely known as he was the co-founder and author of one of the most comprehensive encyclopedias of the time. When Catherine II, Empress of All Russia, found out about Diderot's financial problems, she offered him to sell her her library for £ 1,000 (approximately $ 50,000 at the modern exchange rate). Now Diderot had money. Immediately after the deal was completed, Diderot bought himself a new bright red robe, and from that moment everything went wrong.

Diderot effect

Diderot's bright red robe was very handsome and stood out from the rest of his belongings. According to the philosopher, with his appearance between other things "coordination, unity and beauty disappeared." Diderot soon had a desire to buy some new clothes that would be in harmony with the beauty of his bright red robe.

He replaced the old carpet with a new one from Damascus, bought a table and decorated his house with magnificent sculptures. He bought a mirror, which he hung over the fireplace, and a leather chair.

This kind of shopping has become known as the Diderot effect, according to which the purchase of a new thing often creates a spiral of consumption - the desire to have more and more new things. As a result, we buy what our former self did not need in order to feel happy or satisfied.

Why We Want To Have Things We Don't Need

Like many other people, you are most likely also a victim of the Diderot effect. Maybe you bought a new car, and with it a bunch of different bells and whistles: a tire pressure sensor, a car battery charger, an umbrella, a first aid kit, a pocket knife, a flashlight, a blanket and even a tool for cutting a seat belt ...

You can see similar patterns of behavior in many other areas of life:

You bought a new dress and now you need matching earrings and shoes.
- You decided to go in for CrossFit, bought a subscription and realized that you need foam rollers, knee pads, wrist straps, protein, and so on.
- You bought your daughter a doll, after which you discovered that she needs additional clothes and accessories.
- You bought a new sofa and suddenly realized that it does not fit the interior of your room.

Life has a natural tendency to become fulfilling. We rarely tend to downplay, oversimplify, ignore, and shorten. We naturally strive to accumulate, multiply, develop and improve.

Mastering the Diderot effect

The Diderot effect tells us to focus on the things that really matter.

Reduce the influence of external factors. To reduce the influence of the Diderot effect, it is necessary, first of all, to avoid the influence of external factors that provoke the emergence of a habit. Unsubscribe from commercial mailings. Refuse to receive catalogs. Meet friends in the park, not the mall. Block your favorite online stores.

Buy things that fit your current value system. This way, you don't have to start from scratch every time you want to buy something. If you buy clothes, match them to your current wardrobe. The same goes for technology, electronics, and more.

Set yourself up with spending limits. Keep track of how much money and what you are spending. Set limits.

Bought a new one - got rid of the old one. Got a new TV? Sell \u200b\u200bor donate the old one to someone, don't move it to another room. Don't let the number of things in your home grow. Surround yourself only with what brings you joy and happiness.

Don't buy anything new for a month. The more we limit ourselves, the more resourceful and resourceful we become.

Let go of what you want. The time when you stop wanting anything will never come. Realize that desires are just a variant produced by the brain, not an order that you must follow.

How to overcome the consumption trend

To consume more, not less is our natural desire. With this in mind, I believe that taking steps to reduce the flow of consumption will make our lives better. The goal is to fill it with the optimal amount of things.

Diderot said: “Let my example serve you as a lesson. Poverty has its freedoms; wealth has its obstacles. "

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The woman's house is its continuation and largely reflects the character of its mistress. However, the things that we fill it with are not only beneficial. They clutter up free space and even pose a health hazard.

site I tried to find out from what familiar things one should expect a catch, although at first glance everything is in order.

Disposable and plastic tableware

It's lightweight and colorful, and the disposable doesn't need to be washed after eating. Only designers advise adult women to give up such dishes. It is used for picnics when there are small children, but not on a regular basis. Moreover, now you can find many budget and stylish options for tableware.

Lucky surprise

Many varnishes contain toluene, formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate and their derivatives - toxic substances that can seriously harm the body. Manicure masters have a much higher chance of getting sick. They breathe in harmful fumes from drying nail polish every day.

Always read the composition of the varnish before buying and try not to wear it for more than a week. The staff of beauty salons need to ventilate the premises more often and work with gloves.

Overloaded extension cord

We often have to use extension cords, especially in old houses or in the country. At the same time, it is easy to forget about simple rules and comfortable living. An overloaded power strip can cause a fire and looks creepy. It also increases our chances of breaking, tripping, and getting a bruise or sprain.

Vinyl wallpapers

The main component of vinyl wallpaper is polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. Poor-quality wall covering releases vinyl chloride vapors from it. At a low concentration, the harmful substance gradually affects all body systems, disrupting their work.

You should carefully approach the choice of wallpaper, and if you still prefer "plastic", it is safer to choose non-vinyl options. And you can experiment with paint.

"Temporary furniture"

We strive to make our home truly cozy. But nothing spoils the interior like "temporary furniture", which is bought to fill the space. And in the hope of later replacing it with dream furniture. The older we get, the more thoughtful we should invest in furnishing, acquiring classic furnishings that do not lose their value over the years.

Expired cosmetics and old samples

It is better not to use cosmetics and samples "for later" after the expiration date. They just won't work to their fullest. For example, a cream with SPF will not save you from sunburn, the foundation will lie unevenly, the BB cream will become almost transparent, etc. And sometimes expired cosmetics cause irritation and provoke acne.

Air freshener

An air freshener is a frequent visitor to the home restroom. However, many air fresheners contain harmful substances that are not indicated on the labels.

As an alternative to air fresheners, you can use a powerful hood, natural essential oils, sachets and even aroma stones. The latter options look very impressive and give the room a special chic.

A sofa-book instead of a bed

The older we get, the more comfortable our bed should be. When it does not need to be constantly cleaned, it is filled with high-quality linen, and on top there is a slide of soft pillows, sleep will become a real relaxation for the soul and body.

Bathroom curtain that has never been washed

Scientists note that soapy streaks on shower curtains are actually bacterial clumps. They can cause various opportunistic infections in immunocompromised people. To maintain hygiene and beauty in the bathroom, you should regularly wash the shower curtain with baking soda or vinegar.

Old business cards and magazines

If you still have thick business card holders, as was fashionable in the early 2000s, it's time to throw them away. Today they look strange, and hardly anyone will need a business card from the company where you worked 5-10 years ago. And most people's contacts are easy to find on the Internet.

Glossy clippings can be part of a beautiful collage, or useful as a source of inspiration for designers, fashion designers and other creative people. However, it's time to say goodbye to old magazines that have been gathering dust on the shelves for over a year, taking up space and creating chaos.

Towels in the bathroom

Towels hanging in a warm, humid bathroom are big fluffy "comfort houses" for bacteria. And even though we have adapted to live side by side with most of them, it is better to play it safe. Moreover, many people carelessly wash their hands, then wipe them on towels and transfer microorganisms from the street home, to the ideal breeding environment.

The most effective antibacterial agent is to wash your bath and kitchen towels at least once a week. It is also recommended to dry them thoroughly immediately after use. And in the bathroom it is very difficult to do it.

Old carpets

Carpets are large dust collectors that need to be vacuumed with high quality about twice a week and periodically given for professional cleaning. Therefore, many of us have already decided to abandon them, rolled them into rolls and put them on the balcony, in the closet or taken to the dacha. In this case, it's time to either throw them out, or try to find new owners for them. Even when rolled up, carpets collect dust and take up space.

I rearrange my things in the basement and find a large can of water-based paint. What is she doing here, I think. And, from the repair remains. Throw it out. Since there have been god knows how many repairs in my life, now I already know perfectly well that all these paint cans, on which the color number has long been erased, all these paint rollers and a few ceramic tiles, water-based emulsion and putties, you just need to throw away.

But before, for some reason, they lived for years on the far shelves, turning into fossils under their covers. For some reason, the heavy tile took up space, and it was worth the effort and, possibly, dropping the kidney to move it. These things seemed necessary to me. It seemed that they would come in handy someday. But "someday" never comes. Have you been coming?

Our people outside the city - especially those who live almost in barracks - like to seize public lands. Therefore, the citizens built front gardens and set up vegetable gardens in public areas. They also put shells and "beautiful" rusty garages.

Recently, an announcement appeared on all these architectural structures: they say, citizens, demolish all this in an amicable way, because improvement is coming. You are Moscow after all. And very slowly, one by one, reluctantly, the garage owners began to break them.

Where the iron sheds stood, square voids formed, and a rubbish mountain remained under each former garage. Because the one who loves to seize the land hates to clean up the trash after himself.

Our people hate to throw out and do not understand what is superfluous and unnecessary

And what do you think makes up the bulk of those heaps? That's right, petrified sacks of sand concrete and many years old paint cans. If these garage guys, who want to put everyone in business someday, didn’t need these building materials, then we don’t need them, and even more so.

I'll make a special note here for those who read diagonally and then write comments. This text is not about paint and tiles. This text is about unnecessary fouling.

I believe that our people hate to throw it away and do not understand what is superfluous and unnecessary. They strive to overgrow things so that they can hardly live between them later. Aspiration is so not new that it is even included in the list of sins and is called shamefulness. This is a sinful passion, which consists in the desire to acquire things for no apparent benefit for oneself, collecting unnecessary things.

Personally, as an atheist, I perceive the description of this sin as an accurate observation of our ancestors for human nature. Which, of course, hasn't changed at all in a thousand years. We still keep all sorts of rubbish as something unrealistically valuable, we still breed it and don't let us get rid of it.

I have several familiar families who live in tiny Khrushchev houses. They always have one room littered with rubbish. Although one cannot complain that the apartment is too spacious to live. It is simply overwhelmed historically, and that's it.

And what does your balcony look like, or rather, a loggia? Maybe yours is clean, fresh and serves to come up to the window with a cup of coffee and look at a beautiful view from there. I know for sure a dozen loggias where there are some old yellow newspapers, ancient jam jars, broken skis, old spotted blankets, some knots with some things and something else.

If we throw it out, is there immediate poverty?

And until the son has a brave wife who dares to disassemble the loggia, while everyone interferes, pulls objects out of their hands and argues about the need for everyone, things will be stored on the balcony.

There will be three broken washing machines and an untied skirt, which the mother of the family began immediately after marriage, but gave birth to two, had grandchildren - and no longer until the skirt. But he will not let him throw it away, he will prove that he will still bind.

There will be a box with some documents that acquaintances asked to give before going abroad. And this is where, it turns out, the cat went secretly to write.

And what do you have? Can these items come in handy someday if no one even remembers what is there? Why is it all stacked up? If we throw it out, is there immediate poverty?

Not so long ago, a very elderly beautiful woman died. We came to sort out her things. A ton of great books and suitcases with her school dresses. Travel souvenirs and stacks of Ogonyok magazine. We have put a lot in good hands. They threw out a lot.

Things, even very beloved ones, if they are not Picasso's paintings and not an antique buffet - not something that will then be auctioned off for a lot of money - alas, cannot survive us. But if you do not now throw out the jar of water emulsion and newspapers from the loggia, they will live in a petrified form longer than you and me.