Identity Signaling
Choices are made partly to tell others — and yourself — who you are; people abandon tastes adopted by dissimilar groups and pay premiums for symbols of the self they want to become.
An everyday example
Dropping a brand the moment 'the wrong people' start wearing it.
What it can cost you
Buying identity instead of utility; being sold a future self; discomfort when a product clashes with self-concept doing the deciding.
Warning signs
- I would not buy it if no one saw it.
- I dislike it since they started using it.
One thing to do
Separate the two questions: does it do the job, and what does it say? Pay for the second only knowingly.
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