Diderot Effect: Why we buy things we don't need

The difference between needing and feeling need

🏷️ Categories: Minimalism, Behavior, Decision making and biases, History

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The French philosopher Denis Diderot lived a very modest life until everything changed one day in 1765.

Diderot's daughter was soon to be married, but the philosopher's difficult financial situation prevented him from giving his daughter a dowry for her marriage. Despite his difficulties, Diderot already had a certain name as co-founder and writer of the Encyclopédie, one of the most important encyclopedias of the time and owned by many wealthy people.

When news of Diderot's financial problems reached the ears of Catherine the Great, then Empress of Russia, she offered to buy his library for a fortune. An offer that Diderot accepted (Diderot, 1769).

From one day to the next I had more money than time to spend it.

With his wealth, the first thing he bought was an elegant scarlet dressing gown.

From this moment on, everything went wrong.

The dressing gown she had bought was beautiful and its quality unbeatable, but she began to feel that her dressing gown contrasted with the rest of her belongings. All her other possessions did not measure up to her latest acquisition. So she started buying different products to give her house the look it deserved.

He bought a carpet, furniture, paintings, sculptures and many other items of the most exquisite quality when he had never before considered it necessary to buy them, squandering his fortune. All for that first purchase, the red dressing gown (Scott, 2016).

This is the Diderot effect, when buying something drags you on to buy more and more.

Portrait of Diderot in his red robe (Source)

Why we buy things we don't need

Diderot was neither the first nor the last. We have all been victims of this effect at one time or another. You knew exactly what you were going to buy when you left home, but when you came back you had what you were looking for, plus a few other things.

• You bought a dress and while you were at it you bought shoes and earrings to match.

• You bought a bike and felt it was necessary to buy an odometer, cycling clothes and other unnecessary accessories.

• You bought a new camera and you realise that you now need a tripod, a lens kit and a backpack to carry your equipment.

We innately seek to have more and better possessions, never enough.

Two psychological phenomena explain this irrational consumerism:

1. Hedonic adaptation: If a stimulus becomes repetitive, we stop paying attention to it. For example, you buy a new T-shirt and you love wearing it, but in 2 months it is just another one, you don't even remember it. What do you do then? Logically go and buy another one, just for the satisfaction of the novelty.

2. FOMO: ‘Fear Of Missing Out’. That is, the fear of missing out on something. It always happens, you go shopping, you see a bargain and you always have a perfect excuse why it is convenient to take that item. The excuses are usually ‘just in case’ or ‘it was cheap’ (Çelik et al., 2019).

How to avoid the Diderot effect

If we do nothing we end up filling our lives with unnecessary possessions and wasting money absurdly, so it is important to learn to live a more minimalist life in order to really focus on what matters and to live memorable experiences, which give more satisfaction than material goods.

1. Reduce your exposure

Most actions and decisions we make are triggered by action triggers, so the first thing to do is to reduce those kinds of stimuli.

1. Unsubscribe from commercial mailings: If you get 200 mailings of discounted offers and news along with my letters, start here. If you remove all of these, you drastically remove an unnecessary temptation.

2. Block websites: There is an application called Freedom with which you can block websites forever or by the hour. A friend of mine used it to stop using social networks compulsively. Use it for Amazon, Shein or any other site where you feel you are foolishly wasting money. You'll be doing yourself and your wallet a favour.

2. Set limits

My friends say I'm stingy, I tell them I'm responsible.

1. ‘Only if it breaks’: I use this rule with everything that has a limited life. I never change my shoes until the one I have breaks. I have several shoes and sneakers and I only buy one if one breaks. It's simple.

2. ‘It's essential’: When I started camping I needed a tent, a sleeping bag and a torch. A utility knife, headlamp and accessories for camper van camping were not essential. I gave myself a reasonable amount of time, if after several months I saw that it was a problem not to have these items, I would buy them. Many months have passed and I haven't needed any of them. It was a Diderot effect.

3. Plan purchases: Create the habit of writing the shopping list and only buy what is written down. Use the Seinfeld method to create the habit of never buying things impulsively. This way purchases are decided at home and rationally, not in the shop, when everything goes in through the eyes and everything has bargains.

Needs are infinite but so is the false sense of need.

It is vital to find the optimal number of possessions in order not to end up like Diderot.

✍️ Your turn : What do you do to avoid buying more than you need?

💭 Quote of the day: "A person is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to leave behind." Henry David Thoreau, Walden

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