Diderot Effect - The Psychological Trick Apple Uses To Sell Its Ecosystem

I was the absolute master of my old dressing gown, but I have become a slave to my new one – Denis Diderot

The above quote from 16^th Century French Philosopher Denis Diderot’s essay titled “Regrets On Parting with My Old Dressing Gown” explains the Diderot Effect completely, only if you were aware of his story. If not, then today we shall find out what is Diderot Effect is and how it affects us while buying things.

What is Diderot Effect?

The story of origin of Diderot Effect goes like this. Denis Diderot was the cofounder and contributor of the Encyclopedia. Empress Catherine was so impressed by his work, that she gifted him a very expensive gown of the highest quality. In comparison to his newly acquired gown, the rest of his possessions was shabby and cheap. So, one by one he started to replace all his items, replacing them with expensive items, just that they could match up to the standard and style of the gown. And in doing so he went into bankruptcy, and thus said the above-quoted lines.

So this is the Diderot Effect, which explains the idea that a new possession of a good, can lead to spiraling consumption and possession of complementary goods. This phenomenon was first introduced by Canadian Anthropologist Grant McCracken in 1988, and he is the one who coined the term Diderot Effect as well.

How Diderot Effect influences us? What Apple has got to do with it?

Almost any company can be taken into account however I will be referring to Apple here. Apple is known to make their well-known product line of iPhones. However, they are often much costlier than the alternative ones. As such Apple has become more of a status symbol. So, once you buy an iPhone, you end up buying an iWatch, although any other wearable device can be bought, but just to match up with the status symbol of an iPhone, you will probably end up buying their products. Then you buy AirPods and their promise of seamless integration, you get yourself an iPad and MacBook as well. See how the psychology is working here? Maybe you are just paying for the symbol rather than the product, cause there are virtually multiple cost-effective and efficient products from alternate brands. However, many Apple user may defend their positions claiming about Apple’s efficiency, but that could be explained by the “Commitment and Consistency Effect”, which if you want I can explain in a different post. So, Apple is using the Diderot Effect to get you hooked to their product line.

To conclude, not only Apple, almost all businesses often try to exploit the Diderot Effect for selling their products, but if you are careful and rational enough you might as well break free from its chain and stop buying things that you do not need and be financially more secure.