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。