Status pursuit rationally outweighs practical utility in many consumer decisions

Evidence

To satisfy our fundamental desire for status, it is rational to consider status value when weighing an arbitrary practice against its alternatives. Perhaps an upper-middle-class New Yorker finds a Barcalounger more comfortable than an Eames chair, but only the Eames chair adheres to her high-status community’s conventions of interior design. This changes the calculus of the purchase: Is the immediate comfort of a Barcalounger worth the long-term discomforts of status loss? An arbitrary practice may have no practical value over its alternatives, but once anchored in a convention, it offers status value and can improve our lives. This creates a constant trade-off between raw practicality and social approval. When useful Western goods such as radios and kerosene started to appear in Papua New Guinea, the local population still preferred to spend their money on ceremonial pigs to impress others through elaborate feasts. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 154

Categorization

• SEED: The Papua New Guinea ceremonial-pigs vs. radios example is a vivid anecdote usable in any essay on status economics or conspicuous consumption.
• XREF: Reinforces Veblen’s conspicuous consumption and the broader literature on status signaling economics. — connects to: Status-seeking makes many choices nonrational yet still materially rewarding — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 187; Rational administration of consumption masks the loss of individual control over life decisions — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 186; Brand rent exploits status signaling and positional goods demand — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 805 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Brand rent exploits status signaling and positional goods demand #expands (0.85) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 805
• People rationalize status desires as quality and beauty preferences #expands (0.84) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 294
• Status-seeking makes many choices nonrational yet still materially rewarding #qualifies (0.82) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 187
• Consumers deny status motives, claiming utilitarian reasons for purchases #complicates (0.80) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 295
• Status value alters both preferences and actual brain pleasure pathways #expands (0.80) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 155
• Aspirational consumption projects a future self rather than signaling present status #complicates (0.78) — Brooke Erin Duffy, (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love, 64
• Rational administration of consumption masks the loss of individual control over life decisions #complicates (0.74) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 186