We live in a society of total consumption: not just the physical consumption of things but also the conceptual consumption of ideas. We're always on the lookout for tasty new morsels of information and unusual experiences to add to our ever-expanding mental collections.

Mere things like your wattle and daub hut, several oxen and a shiny necklace are no longer impressive; now you need to have followed the Inca trail, formed an opinion on G. K. Chesterton's Christian apologetics and be familiar with the Higgs boson's role in a grand unified theory.

Negative conceptual consumption
The idea that people are voracious consumers of concepts is far from new, but it is only just starting to filter into the psychological literature. In an article published in the new Annual Review of Psychology, Dan Ariely and Michael I. Norton point out that conceptual consumption is especially useful for explaining why people choose certain types of apparently negative experiences.

Take horror movies for example. Over the years all sorts of explanations have been offered for why people voluntarily expose themselves to scary movies: that there is a certain type of pleasure mixed in with the fear; that they are relieved when it's over; that they enjoy the 'rush' while knowing there is no threat. But as any horror nut will tell you, there's more to it than that.

Horror movies may be a minority taste but there are all sorts of other common situations in which people choose experiences they know are going to be unpleasant. In a study carried out by participants were offered the choice of a free trip to either a Marriott Hotel in Florida or an ice hotel in Quebec. Strangely (for me anyway!) the majority preferred the ice hotel despite thinking the Marriot would be more pleasurable.

People will also happily make strange choices about food. In another study by participants were offered a choice between 'normal' flavours of ice-cream and a tasty bowl of bacon ice-cream. By now you'll be unsurprised to learn that many preferred bacon flavour despite knowing it would be less pleasurable.

The experiential CV
All three of these examples are partly explained by people's desire for conceptual consumption. When people choose the ice hotel, the scary movie and the bacon ice-cream, they are choosing more than just the experience itself. They know the movie will frighten them, the icy bed will be uncomfortable and the bacon ice-cream will be weird, but there is a clear payoff in conceptual consumption. It's not just bragging rights, they also like the very idea of each of these things and they want to 'possess' the experience.

It's also about self-image. People want to see themselves, and be seen by others, as interesting people who choose a variety of different experiences for themselves. It's what Keinan and Kivetz refer to as ticking the boxes on our experiential CVs. Collecting experiences is really very similar to collecting bottle-tops, postcards or Furbies, but much cooler -- perhaps because the balance of consumption is weighted away from the physical and more towards the conceptual.

Positive conceptual consumption
The fact that conceptual consumption can be used to understand why people choose apparently negative experiences is it's strength. Why people might choose positive experiences is less of a mystery, but the idea can still expose some interesting quirks:

Feature creep: people frequently choose products with many features which they never use. This may be primarily so they can then show off their purchase to others. Just the idea of having a better camera than other people is enough to snuff out boring thoughts about usability. Of course manufacturers are well aware of this, hence electronics are packed with endless features most of us never use.
Charity: giving to charity seems to confer positive benefits on the giver. Giving our own money to others does actually seem to make us happier than spending it on ourselves. Here it's possible that the idea of charity makes us happier than having the money or equivalent goods.

Second Life: people in virtual worlds happily convert their real-world money into virtual money to buy clothes for their avatars (the object representing themeselves) or to decorate their virtual homes. When viewed through the lens of conceptual consumption this makes perfect sense.
Looking around, conceptual consumption is everywhere. Things like books, TV programmes, blogs, newspapers and magazines -- all of which give us new ideas and new ways of seeing the world -- are just the tip of the iceberg. Even what we might think of as primarily physical consumption isn't really that physical after all. Advertisers understand this only too well: what they are trying to sell aren't just products but ideas, often in the form of 'lifestyles'.

As Ariely and Norton point out even something as simple as eating a cookie is fraught with conceptual questions. What about the diet we just started? Is the cookie organic? What will our co-workers think if they see us eating it? The questions go on and on.

Our minds love consuming concepts almost as much as our bodies crave food. Like our appetite for food, though, our appetite for ideas is only satisfied for a short period before we become hungry again, so hopefully this nugget of conceptual consumption will keep you going until the next click...

我們生活在一個純消費的社會里：不僅有物質消費，還有概念消費。我們總是虎視眈眈地尋找那些誘人的新資訊，哪怕只是只言片語，還有一些非同尋常的體驗，如此以來，就給我們那日益豐富的精神體驗又添上了新的一筆。

僅僅是抹灰的籬笆小屋，幾頭公牛，閃閃發光的項鏈早已沒有吸引力了；現在，你需要的是：踏上過印加之路，對切斯特頓的基督教護教理論有所見地，還要熟悉黑格斯玻色子在大統一理論中的作用。

消極概念消費

認為人類對各種概念的消費是貪婪無厭的想法已經存在了很久; 只是現在才開始出現在心理學方面的作品中。新出版的《心理學年鑒》中有篇文章，其中丹·阿里亞和邁克·諾頓指出概念消費特別有助于解釋人們為什么會選擇某些看上去是消極的體驗。

例如：恐怖電影。多年來，人們搬出各式各樣的原因解釋人們為什么會主動看恐怖電影：因為恐怖中會夾雜著一絲快感，當電影結束時，會有種釋放地感覺；人們享受那血壓升高的一刻，并且知道是有驚無險。但是那些恐怖電影迷會說，好處還遠遠不止這些。

 恐怖電影可能只是少數人的愛好，通常情況下，人們還是會嘗試形形色色的體驗，即便明明知道不是什么愉快的體驗。在一項研究中，參與者均獲得一次免費旅行的機會，他們可選擇入住佛羅里達州的萬豪酒店或是魁北克的全冰旅館。奇怪的是（至少對我來說！）大多數人選了全冰旅館，盡管知道萬豪那里會很舒適。

人們在選擇食物時也樂意選擇那些稀奇古怪的品種。另外一項研究中，參與人員可選擇普通口味的冰淇淋和一盤美味的培根味冰淇淋。現在你已經習以為常了，知道有很多人會更喜歡培根味道的，就算他們知道它沒那么美味。

體驗履歷表

以上三個例子某種程度上可以用人對概念消費的欲望來解釋。當人們選擇全冰旅館，恐怖電影和培根冰淇淋時，他們選擇的已經不僅僅是體驗本身。他們知道恐怖電影會嚇到他們，冰床也不怎么舒服，培根冰淇淋也會吃起來怪怪的，但是概念消費會帶來一種明顯的收獲。除了獲得了吹噓的資本，他們還喜歡那些做出這些東西的“點子”，并且愿意獲得那些體驗。

這是關系到自身形象的事。人們在乎自己怎么看自己和別人怎么看自己，正如一些有趣的人為自己選擇五花八門的體驗。這些就是 凱維茨（哥倫比亞大學商學院營銷學教授瑞恩•科維茨）和凱南（哈佛大學商學院助理教授阿奈特•凱南）所指的在體驗履歷表中勾選項的意義。收集體驗極其類似于收集酒瓶蓋，明信片，或Furby公仔，但是顯得更酷—－可能因為這種消費更傾向于觀念一邊而不是物質一邊。

積極概念消費

事實上，概念消費之所以可以用來理解人們選擇那些看起來消極的體驗，是因為它具有優點。因此為什么選擇積極體驗就沒有那么神秘了，但是積極概念也會通過有趣的方式呈現：

功能擴充：人們常常買一些這樣的產品，功能繁多卻難得一用。買主可能主要是用來向別人炫耀他們所買的東西。單單想到自己有個比別人好的照相機就足以讓自己忘卻了照相機到底好在哪里。制造商們當然很了解這一點，所以那些電子產品總是附帶一大堆的功能，卻大都用不著。
 
  做慈善：捐款給慈善機構好像會給捐贈者帶來些好處。把我們的錢給別人好像真的比花在我們自己什么更能讓我們快樂。因此，有種想法就是，做慈善比擁有金錢或其他好東西更能使我們快樂起來。

第二人生（一種網絡角色扮演游戲）：生活在虛擬世界里的人樂意將真實的貨幣換成虛擬貨幣去為他們自己的網絡角色（代表他們自己的虛擬角色）購買衣服，或是裝飾他們的虛擬家庭。當人們用概念消費透視這一切時，覺得非常合理。

環顧四周，你會發現概念消費無處不在。如，書籍，電視，博客，報紙和雜志—－所有這些都給了我們新的想法和探索世界的新思路—這些還只是冰山一角。甚至于我們所能想到的大部分物質消費也不算是純物質性的。廣告商自然已經對此駕輕就熟:他們的賣點不是商品而是點子，只是這些點子總是披著“生活方式”的外衣罷了。

正如丹·阿里亞和邁克·諾頓所指，即便是簡簡單單地吃個餅干也會牽連出一大堆概念的問題。我們不是剛剛才開始要控制飲食嗎？餅干是有機食品嗎？同事要是看見我在吃餅干會怎么看待我呢？有問不完的問題。

我們大腦對概念的消費和我們身體對食物的渴望幾乎是同樣強烈。正如我們吃東西一樣，我們對想法的渴望也是只能得到暫時的滿足，同樣會再次面臨饑餓。希望這次寶貴的概念消費能維持到你下次的獵奇行動。