Diderot effect

Grant McCracken, in his exploration of the connections between cultural anthropology and consumer behavior, coined the term “the Diderot effect” (McCracken 1986, 1988). The Diderot effect is named after French philosopher Denis Diderot (1713–84), who wrote an essay entitled “Regrets on Parting with my Old Dressing Gown: Or a Warning to Those Who Have More Taste than Money” (1964 [1772]). Diderot recounts receiving a new dressing gown as a gift from a friend and how it compelled him to redecorate his entire study. The new dressing gown made everything in the room look old and shabby by comparison and item by item everything was replaced. Diderot feels this unnecessary process would never have started if his friend hadn't given him the new dressing gown – a gift he now regrets. Established consumption patterns, undisturbed, exert a kind of inertia that resists any major change. Once interrupted, the unity of consumption patterns becomes a mechanism that seeks to rebalance itself: thus Diderot purchased all new items to match his new dressing gown

Aesthetics · Art · Consumption (sociology · Taste · Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Medicine · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics

• Culture and Consumption

  Grant Mccracken•Culture and Consumption•1990

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• Culture and Consumption

  Grant Mccracken•Journal of Consumer Research•1986

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