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Living in luxury is something that many people aspire to do. There are those who easily find themselves surrounded by luxurious items and there are some that have to do a lot of work to get the luxuries that they have. There are those that can do a little searching online with sites like Modvisor.com and find thrifty ways to obtain a little luxury here and there in their life. No matter the method on how we obtain our luxuries, there is some science behind why everyone in some way craves a little luxury in their life. That’s right, even our wants for the finer things in life start in our head by our brains sending signals based on many different things we have experienced.
One of the things that our heads naturally do is assume that because something has a higher price tag, it is better than those similar things that cost less. I know it sounds a little absurd that our brains act like that, but it is very true. There have been many studies done on this very subject. For example, a large group of people were rating the flavor of wines they were tasting based only on the price tag on the bottle of wine. The bottles that had higher price tags were rated as having a better taste. The study has also been done where high price tags were put on cheaper bottles of wine and the bottles priced higher and were rated as better than those with lower prices, when in reality the wines with the lower prices were actually the more expensive wines.
The same theory is true for high fashion clothing. Our brains naturally associate better quality with higher prices and name brands. We not only associate quality with these things, but high price tags and popular brands also make us feel more luxurious. There is an extra bounce in a woman’s step when she puts on a pair of shoes made by an exclusive designer. This bounce comes from us hearing through so many types of advertising that these things are what the stars are wearing. It tricks our brain into feeling like we are richer than we actually are. Men and women alike are affected by little tricks like this. You can put two men in an identical suit, but if one carried the Armani label and the other had no label at all, the man in the labeled suit would feel more important, even if the only difference in the other suit was that the labels had been removed.
This doesn’t only extend to things such as wine and clothes. There are things around us every day that can affect how luxurious we feel. There is nothing out there like the feel of driving a brand new car. However, we feel completely different behind the wheel of a Lexus than we do driving a brand new Chevrolet. What is even more interesting is that we can be driving a used Lexus and still feel more luxurious than we would driving a new Chevrolet. It all comes with how our brain reacts to hearing the word “Lexus.” It is automatically associated with money and luxury; whereas, most people associate “Chevrolet” with a simple car or truck.
This need for luxury spreads everywhere in our life. All over our homes, we have electronics and many of us are very brand specific in the things that we purchase. This is because we have heard those brands are better and are of higher quality than the brands that cost less. From things like the cell phones in our pockets to the computers we use in our homes, and the appliances we use in our kitchen; we choose these items many times based on the brand name and price alone without doing much comparison for lower priced items. Our brains naturally think that because they cost more, they must be better.
There really is nothing sacred when it comes to how our minds react to luxury. However, it even works on the smallest things in life. Name brand products at the grocery store just make us feel better than if we buy off-brand products, even though many times the items are made by the very same manufacturer. The only difference is the label that is slapped on the side of the packaging. This isn’t only groceries though, we feel the same about cleaning products, office merchandise, or even the plates and glasses we eat off of.
