How Memories Prevent Consumption

"One study of how memories influence consumption explored the phenomenon whereby people who have truly enjoyed an experience, such as a special evening out, sometimes prefer not to repeat it. We might expect that they would want to experience the physical consumption of such an evening again; but by forgoing repeat visits, they are preserving their ability to consume the pure memory – the concept – of that evening forever, without the risk of polluting it with a less-special evening."

-- Dan Ariely (Predictably Irrational) and Michael I. Norton:, MIT Tech Review, via


P.S. And then I go to Amazon for the link to Arieli's book, and see it right there on the home page. Spooky.

2 comments:

  1. Spooky indeed - how about a link to a recent interview Dan did: http://www.rabbleandrouser.com/talk/more/interview_with_dan_ariely/

    Enjoy the book.

    Lee

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for the link -- I didn't know about the Coke experiment he talks about.

    Already enjoyed the book and lent it to an economist friend.

    ReplyDelete

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