We've all had this experience before when we come across an extremely nice piece of clothing. Our brain reacts and trying it on feels as good as finishing a five mile run does. It's fucking incredible, even if the price is completely unattainable. Well, guess what? Research teams and brands are starting to use that to their advantage. The Business of Fashion has a huge piece on brain research related to shopping and *pushes nerd glasses up nose* it's pretty fucking cool.
While logic and rational thinking used to be the main reasons to buy something (i.e. could you afford it and still make next month's rent?) the new belief is that people more often buy things without hitting their decision process full stride. This research is taking focus groups to the next level. Rather than get a few people together and have them explain their reasoning, where they can still be judged by other participants, researchers are using brain scans to see how people react to images of certain brands and items. Even if shown for just a split second, there are responses within the brain's pleasure center. It can all come down to simply believing one article of clothing is more valuable than another.
While other industries have adopted neuroscience research, fashion is just now getting on board. There's a whole lot of other details that go into this because the brain is a complicated piece of machinery—things like hype cycles and the fact that you have to use deep brain scans that don't allow shoppers to try items on. Now, since tons of shopping is done online, we're more reliant on the initial response, an emotional one, than ever before.
It really all comes down to one thing: If all you do is surround yourself with incredibly expensive clothing, you will basically skew your brain so hard toward your taste level that it could be irreparably damaged as your taste level continues to rise and eventually reach unattainable, never before seen heights. Just kidding. Fire jawnz will always be there for you. As always, cop, cop, cop. You can always deal with the consequences tomorrow.
