The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Consumption and Consumer Studies

Conspicuous Consumption

JULIET B. SCHOR

Boston College, US

DOI: 10.1002/9781118989463.wbeccs050

The term “conspicuous consumption” entered the sociological lexicon via Thorstein Veblen's biting analysis of the spending patterns of the rich and nouveau riche in the late nineteenth century. The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) is an account of how these groups spent enormous energy and money constructing an ostentatious style of life. They built and decorated ornate homes, adorned their persons with clothing and jewelry, designed elaborate carriages, and employed large numbers of servants dressed in expensive uniforms. Throughout, the principles of waste, luxury, and ornamentation ruled the choices they made. The motive that animated their efforts was the desire for social esteem, which itself was dependent on the possession of wealth. But having money was not enough: it must be put “in evidence,” or become conspicuous. Without a public display of superfluity, there is no socially sanctioned method of convincingly proving the size of one's bank account. That need for public display is caused by the combination of what contemporary theorists call moral hazard (a strong incentive to lie about how much money one has) with complex, unwritten rules of gaining social status (e.g., boasting is counterproductive, nonchalant display being the preferred method). Because these are ongoing features of wealth-based status systems, the concept of conspicuousness continued to be important long ...