购买奢侈品可能会造成心理负担

Do you rarely wear the nicest items in your closet  [ˈklɒzɪt]? Or are you one of the many women who wears faux [fəʊ] rings despite owning valuable ones? 

你是不是很少穿戴自己衣柜里最好的服饰？或者你是那种明明买了贵重珠宝却戴假珠宝戒指的女人？

Now you know why: it turns out that luxury items can spur [spɚ] a psychological [ˌsaɪkəˈlɒdʒɪkl] rabbit hole of impostor [ɪmˈpɑstɚ] syndrome [ˈsɪndrəʊm]. 

现在你知道为什么了：奢侈品可能会让你陷入冒充者综合症的心理困境。

Fancy purchases “can backfire [ˌbækˈfaɪə(r)], and make consumers feel inauthentic [ˌɪnɔ:ˈθentɪk], producing what we call the ‘imposter [ɪm'pɑstɚ] syndrome from luxury consumption,'” says Nailya Ordabayeva, associate professor of marketing at the Boston College Carroll School of Management and a coauthor of a series of studies exploring luxury consumption.

购买奢侈品可能”事与愿违，让消费者感觉不真实，产生我们叫做‘奢侈消费引起的冒充者综合症’，”奈莉亚·奥尔达巴耶娃（Nailya Ordabayeva）说，她是波士顿学院商学院副教授以及一系列奢侈品消费研究的合著者。

An all-Boston team of researchers (from Harvard, Boston College, and Boston University) conducted nine studies of over 1,000 high-end consumers, mixing surveys and observation in such luxe  [lʊks] hotspots as a Louis Vuitton store in New York City, the Metropolitan [ˌmetrəˈpɑlɪtən]  Opera, and Martha’s Vineyard.

一个波士顿研究团队（成员来自哈佛、波士顿学院以及波士顿大学）对1000多名高端消费者进行了九项研究，期间穿插在热门奢侈品商店的调查和观察，例如纽约的LV店、大都会歌剧院以及玛莎葡萄园。

At issue is authenticity [ˌɔ:θenˈtɪsəti] : specifically, the gap between your perceived [pəˈsi:vd] true self and your external  [ɪkˈstɜ:nl]projected self. If you have a lower psychological sense of entitlement [ɪnˈtaɪtlmənt], you are more likely to feel inauthentic in luxury apparel [əˈpærəl] —like it’s not really you but just something you’re wearing. This discord [ˈdɪskɔ:d]is psychologically uncomfortable. People with a high psychological sense of entitlement feel like themselves in luxury garb  [gɑrb] —and don’t hesitate to wear it.

问题在于真实感：特别是你感受到的真正自我和你外在的映射自我之间的差距。如果你的心理权利意识弱，那你穿戴奢侈品时更容易感觉不真实--就好像那不是真的你，而是你的穿着。这种不一致让人心理上很不舒服。而权利意识强的人感觉到的是穿着奢侈服装的自己--并且毫不犹豫地穿上。

While researchers have long known that luxury goods can elevate[ˈelɪveɪt]  social recognition [ˌrekəgˈnɪʃn] and status, this “psychological cost of luxury” is news to high-end retailers. Ordabayeva suggests that retailers try to stave [steɪv] off this psychological conflict by “boosting consumers’ feelings of deservingness” through marketing and sales tactics, so that they feel that luxury is not a privilege  [ˈprɪvəlɪdʒ] but well-deserved.

虽然研究者们很早就知道奢侈品可以提高社会认可和社会地位，但“奢侈品的心理成本”对于高端产品零售商来说还是新闻。奥尔达巴耶娃建议零售商通过营销和销售策略“让消费者感觉自己值得这些”，这样他们就会觉得奢侈品不是特权，而是他们应得的。