The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Consumption and Consumer Studies

Diderot Effect

JANET A. LORENZEN

Williamette University, USA

DOI: 10.1002/9781118989463.wbeccs095

Grant McCracken (1986, 1988) argues that when a familiar consumption pattern is disrupted, by a fine gift for example, individuals will seek to establish a new pattern of consumption which conforms to the level of quality and status represented by the gift. McCracken calls this the Diderot effect, 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). On receiving a new dressing gown as a gift from a friend, Diderot found that it compelled him to redecorate his entire study because the new dressing gown made everything else in the room look old and shabby by comparison. The Diderot effect is thus a mechanism for overconsumption; the attempt to purchase goods which fit together in some subjectively coherent way results in expansive consumer spending and continual trading up. Caught up in this process of the Diderot effect, individuals are also attempting to fulfill their ideal of a good life through the purchase of particular consumer goods.

Establishing a new consumer pattern is an ongoing process enabled by “bridging goods” – or unique objects that connect individuals to their hopes and ideals (McCracken 1986, 1988, 2006). McCracken (1988) describes many different kinds of bridging goods including both commodified and noncommodified objects ...