There are ways to fight the Diderot Effect

For years my clothes were housed in a cast off dresser made of particle board with a scuffed up exterior.

It was ugly, true, but it served the function of holding clothes. Then my parents downsized and I inherited their two dressers.

I disposed of the warped particle board eyesore and proudly set up the new dressers. Suddenly, my entire house looked shabby. Even my clothes seemed worn out and faded.

I noticed how the bedspread was stained, and my home office desk was small, scarred, and ugly. My bookshelves were sagging in the middle. I replaced the bedspread and the bookshelves.

Then the floor started looking like it needed to be replaced. Wait a minute, I thought. What am I doing? I later learned this dresser makeover and the subsequent desire to upgrade had a name: The Diderot Effect.

Denis Diderot was a well-known yet impoverished French philosopher, but all of that changed in 1765. His daughter was to be married, and he couldn’t afford to pay for the wedding, much less appropriate attire to wear to the wedding.

Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia, heard of his financial issues and offered to buy his personal library for a vast sum. Diderot sold it, and paid for the wedding, along with buying himself a new scarlet robe. It was a beautiful robe. So beautiful, it looked out of place among the rest of his ordinary possessions.

He felt the need to upgrade and replaced his rug with a Damascus rug. He discarded his straw chair and bought a leather chair. Every time he upgraded, he found something else that looked shabby.

He was both the example and the namesake of the Diderot Effect, whereby obtaining new possessions creates a spiral that leads to additional purchases (Clear 72-73).

It was easy to notice the Diderot Effect with my kids. When my neighbor gave my daughter an American Girl doll, she immediately wanted all the accessories. When the kids got new shoes, they wanted an upgrade on their clothes.

When they finally got phones, they wanted accessories I never heard of, better cords and, almost immediately, better phones.

I’ve often wondered why people with lots of money keep upgrading their homes. What they cast off is much nicer than what I have. I now know: it’s the Diderot effect.

The problem with the Diderot Effect is that it is insatiable.

Unless checked, we don’t stop buying. The Diderot Effect tricks us into thinking that the next purchase will finally complete the picture, but in reality, the picture is always expanding.

There are ways to fight the Diderot Effect, suggestions like setting self-imposed limits on purchases, always practicing the “one in, one out” policy, and redefining luxury as less rather than more.

But my favorite antidote to the Diderot Effect is gratitude.
Gratitude is more than an attitude, it is a practice.

Brené Brown, in her book Atlas of the Heart, notes that many of the emotions that benefit us-like joy and contentment-have appreciation in common.

There is overwhelming evidence that gratitude is good for us in every way She was reminded of a quote she had seen on social media; “Remember the day you prayed for the things you have now.”

She says, “I normally scroll right past the heavy inspirational quotes, but this one got my attention. I think adapting to goodness without feeling gratitude is a function of scarcity. We either want things for the wrong reasons then feel disappointed when we acquire them, or we just can’t accumulate enough to feel whole so we accumulate and adapt, never valuing or appreciating” (202),

Brown goes on to say that gratitude is a practice. If we are intentional about it, it completely changes our perspective.
Gratitude really is a game-changer. It shifts the focus from what’s missing to what’s already enough.

Works Cited:
Clear, James. Atomic Habits. New York, Penguin Random House, 2018, pp. 72 -73.
Brown, Brene. Atlas of the Heart. New York, Penguin Random House, 2021.

Contact Sharon at tct@pageone-inc.com