Diderot Effect

How the Diderot Effect Operates

Grant McCracken has defined the Diderot effect formally as the “force that encourages the individual to maintain a cultural consistency in his/her complement of consumer goods.” Essentially, Diderot unities are a consequence of the Diderot effect, and there are three main ways in which the Diderot effect can operate.

• 1.
  Continuity and Conservatism: First, the effect works to ensure the cultural consistency of an individual's lifestyle and to prevent the entry of a new object that might disrupt an existing Diderot unity. According to Grant McCracken, we are able to maintain a consistent sense of self by maintaining the cultural consistencies in our things. In guarding against the intrusion of new objects and the meanings that they carry, we are protected from the new ideas and activities that might serve to destabilize our sense of who we are. In this framing, the Diderot effect ensures continuity in our material world and the purest of signals from our possessions, such that we are able to experience continuity and a clear set of meanings in our personal lives.
• 2.
  Transformation and Innovation: In another framing, as in the case of Diderot's dressing gown, it works to bring about a radical transformation of an individual's set of consumer goods. The introduction of a new consumer good can create a demand for other goods in the bundle to be replaced, such that they match the meaning of the object that initiated the change. Here, the Diderot effect is innovative and not conservative, raising the question of how an effect that preserves unity can become one that brings about a complete overhaul of one's existence. The answer lies in those purchases that have no precedent in the existing complement of goods and whose introduction causes the Diderot effect to work toward a new unity. These “departure purchases” can come about for any number of reasons. For example, the force of marketing has the potential to persuade individuals to make a purchase that sits outside their usual bundle, just as a new job with a higher income might provide the means to purchase a Rolex, which in turn will compel the individual to [Page 99]purchase the BMW, and so on. Similarly, changes in personal circumstances such as the arrival of a new child or a move to a different city might prompt departure purchases that lead to a new unified bundle of consumer goods. Finally, as in the case of Diderot's dressing gown, gifts can be the point of departure from which the Diderot effect operates toward a new Diderot unity. Indeed, gifts very often carry new meanings into the existence of the receiver, which in turn brings about a new standard of consumption. It is not difficult to imagine a badly dressed young man being given a new shirt by his girlfriend, nor is it difficult to imagine the shirt acting as a catalyst for the young man to transform his entire wardrobe, haircut, and grooming regime. It might, however, be beyond the scope of this article to suggest that this was the girlfriend's intention all along!
• 3.
  Personal Experimentation: Finally, the potential exists for individuals to exploit the Diderot effect by deliberately purchasing consumer goods whose meanings disrupt the notion of unity. In doing so, these individuals exhibit the ability (or hope) to displace any existing sense of self in favor of creating a whole new lifestyle. Although the emphasis here is on choice and identity formation, it is interesting to note how the Diderot effect still comes into play and compels the individual to purchase further consumer goods in a potentially endless chain of new product complements.

The “Ratchet” Effect

The important thing about the Diderot effect is that it operates a “ratchet” effect on consumer expenditure. In its “rolling form,” the departure purchase is made at the top end of an individual's product complement and then operates a gravitational pull on the rest of the bundle, such that the next purchase matches the departure purchase and so on, until the entire bundle matches the departure purchase. In its “spiral” form, the effect operates on every purchase such that each purchase is drawn from a higher, more-expensive product complement than the last, and there is never a point at which the entire bundle catches up with and matches the departure purchase. In either case, it locks the consumer into an ever-ascending spiral of consumption and expenditure such that no product complement is ever complete and the consumer is never satisfied. Clearly, the Diderot effect can be understood as a key mechanism through which high and environmentally damaging levels of consumption are perpetuated. Nevertheless, Elizabeth Shove and Alan Warde have offered a speculative nod to the idea that the Diderot effect might be appropriated in favor of “greener” patterns of consumption. For example, it is feasible that a “green” departure purchase might compel the individual consumer to match this with further green purchases and environmentally less damaging practices across their whole lifestyle.

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