Shocking revelation: Women using luxury goods seem to lose all restraint towards candy

There are two papers on the social costs of using luxury goods. Think of Prada or Louis Vuitton handbags, or if you have lost all taste MCM. Aargh!

The Dark Side of Luxury: Social Costs of Luxury Consumption

Abstract

Extant research demonstrates that luxury goods are beneficial signals that bestow upon individuals social benefits that range from positive evaluations to compliance. In contrast to this perspective, the current work explores the idea that luxury goods can carry significant negative social costs for actors. Across four experiments, the social cost of luxury is examined. Although individuals who display luxury goods are ascribed higher status, they can pay a hefty tax when it comes to warmth. The social costs of luxury consumption appear to be driven by impression management concerns rather than envy. Consequently, whether the consumption of luxury goods yields positive or negative social consequences for an actor critically depends both on whether status or warmth is relevant for a decision and observers’ own lay beliefs about luxury consumption. Overall, this work reveals the more complex psychology of individuals’ interpretation and response to actors’ use of luxury goods.

Unfortunately, the paper is gated but there is a paper from 2015.

The Dark Side Of Luxury Consumption: Psychological And Social Consequences Of Using Luxury Goods

Women using luxury goods seem to lose all restraint towards candy.

In order to test my prediction, I have completed four experiments. As before, women used a luxury or non-luxury product. After using the product, the participants then completed tasks designed to assess their ability to exert self-control when a snack of candy was made available to them. Looking at the amount of candy consumed, I found results supportive of my prediction. For example:

Study 1 & 2: Women who carried a luxury handbag were less able to resist candy and ate more of it than women who carried a non-luxury handbag, and this difference was due to feelings of being in a spotlight. Also, the effects of carrying a luxury handbag on food consumption were stronger for women who generally struggle with self-control. 

Studies 3 & 4: These studies ruled out several alternative explanations for the observed effects. Increases in food consumption for luxury users were not driven by changes in feelings of power, status, positive mood, negative mood, or how much the participants liked the handbag.

Results of this study provide additional support for our contention that luxury users’ feelings of being in a spotlight are responsible for self-regulatory depletion, indicated by a lessened ability to resist tasty but unhealthy food.

Women using luxury goods impose social costs on other(s) (women). Who knew, after all, that's why they use makeup.

Finally, we show that luxury goods have an impact that goes beyond the luxury user alone. Whereas prior work on luxury consumption has examined well-being from the standpoint of the consumer, we show that luxury consumption has negative consequences for the well-being of others because the selfish behaviors triggered by luxury usage in our studies impose costs on others. Such behaviors, which can be viewed as the societal costs of luxury consumption, are not only unexpected but are also unwelcome consequences of luxury usage.

Women using luxury goods show greater altruism like giving to charity or other forms of donations. However, only when it is visible in the public. Bitches!

I found that most of the time self-interested behavior manifested as selfish behavior, such as women taking more money for themselves and donating less money to charity in private. However, I found that self-interested behavior manifested as generous behavior when the situation explicitly afforded people an opportunity to enhance their reputation by acting generously. For example, I found that wearing luxury products led women to donate more money to charity when donations were made in public in front of other people. Note that the types of selfish and generous behavior assessed across six studies all constitute self-interested behavior. Both selfish and generous behavior benefitted the person by either enabling them to acquire more resources or by enabling them to gain a boost in reputation. Indeed, both selfish and generous behaviors were triggered by an increased sense of social status that resulted from consuming luxury goods.

The dissertation is well worth reading.