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Paul Bloom argues that the attractiveness of luxury goods is not only due to sensory pleasure or social signalling but is also associated with the historical origins and the deeper properties of these objects.

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"Thus the history of an object matters to the pleasure we get from it" (Bloom 6).

"We respond to what we believe are objects’ deeper properties, including their histories" (Bloom 7).

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Perspective 1: Aesthetic Appeal (Virginia Postrel)

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Perspective 1: Aesthetic Appeal (Virginia Postrel)

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Luxury goods deliver immediate sensory pleasure through high-quality products and offer emotions tied to aesthetics and personal enjoyment. Human attraction to those visually appealing luxury products is universal, perceptual and immediate, making aesthetics a fundamental aspect of consumer behaviour.

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“People pet Armani clothes because the fabrics feel so good. Those clothes attract us as visual, tactile creatures, not because they are ‘rich in meaning’ but because they are, in a word, beautiful” (Bloom 2).

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This perspective expands on how luxury goods provide immediate sensory pleasure. “People pet Armani clothes because the fabrics feel so good. Those clothes attract us as visual, tactile creatures, not because they are ‘rich in meaning’ but because they are, in a word, beautiful” (Bloom 2). The allure of such luxury goods is rooted in the immediate sense we experience when interacting (by looking or touching) with such finely crafted objects. The use of example like ‘petting’ Armani fabrics highlights that people derive pleasure from the material quality itself, independent of any symbolic meaning. This perspective reflects a broader aesthetic philosophy, yet it is somewhat narrow as it overlooks the cultural and social significance that often accompany luxury consumption.

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Perspective 2: Social Signaling (Geoffrey Miller, Thorstein Veblen)

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Perspective 2: Social Signaling (Geoffrey Miller, Thorstein Veblen)

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Luxury goods can act as status symbols, signalling wealth, power, and desirable characteristics to other people. This type of signalling is associated with competition within the dynamics of society, where individuals display exquisite, rare, expensive products to express superiority (to a certain extent) to their peers. The signalling behind such purchases can reflect both evolutionary instincts and societal pressures.

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“Though we are often unaware of it and might angrily deny it, we are driven to accumulate ostentatious goods to impress others. we are driven to accumulate ostentatious goods to impress others.” (Bloom 3).

“... the hungerforthese luxury goodsis amodern expression ofthe evolved desire to signal attractive traits—such asintelligence, ambition, and power—to entice mates:Charles Darwin’s sexual selection meets Veblen’s conspicuous consumption” (Bloom 3).

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This socio-psychological perspective suggests using luxury goods as tools for signalling status. Built from the insights of Thorstein Veblen, this perspective stated that “Though we are often unaware of it and might angrily deny it, we are driven to accumulate ostentatious goods to impress others. we are driven to accumulate ostentatious goods to impress others.” (Bloom 3). From this evidence, we can recognise the complexity of human behaviour as we purchase expensive goods. Our motivations behind such behaviour are not associated with cognitive thinking and are not based on our logical sense; instead, they belong to our natural instincts. Moreover, “... the hunger for these luxury goods is a modern expression of the evolved desire to signal attractive traits—such as intelligence, ambition, and power—to entice mates: Charles Darwin’s sexual selection meets Veblen’s conspicuous consumption” (Bloom 3). It shows that such signalling is also rooted in biological traits—broadening the argument and linking consumerism to human’s natural instincts. The author also expanded Veblen’s concept of ‘conspicuous consumption’ to criticise how social pressure pushes individuals into this cycle of human instincts to show off, and even comparing it to an arms race where choosing not to participate can risk being excluded from society.

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Perspective 3: Social Signaling (Geoffrey Miller, Thorstein Veblen)

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Perspective 3: Social Signaling (Geoffrey Miller, Thorstein Veblen)

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The true attractiveness of luxury lies in the history and deeper meaning (propeties) within the luxury products itself, sometimes even beyond aesthetics or signaling. this perspective argues that past ownership—"sort of history concerns who has touched the object in the past" (Bloom 6)— and unique origins can transform ordinary objects into treasures, making history an crucial aspects in consumer appeal.

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“Thus the history of an object matters to the pleasure we get from it” (Bloom 6).

“If you were to discover that your Rolex is an inexpensive duplicate, you would experience the same effect” (Bloom 10).

“Its appearance didn’t change, just its history, but people no longer wanted to look at it” (Bloom 10).

“And one intriguing sort of history concerns who has touched the object in the past. Consumers are more likely to buy something that has been touched or tried on by a physically attractive person. Celebrities, in particular, possess the “touch”—one reason why people want objects that have had some contact with them. (Bloom 6)”

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This perspective delves into how historical significance and the object’s deeper properties can transform ordinary objects into treasures. Using the ‘endowment effect’, we can recognise how the effects of personal achievements infused inside objects or their connection with celebrities can ultimately lead to a substantial increase in their value. “That one child enjoys a teddy bear does not seem to detract from his playmate’s enjoyment of his own. That no one watches me eat mom’s cooking doesn’t make it taste any less wonderful. Some goods, including luxury goods, are valued for properties that have nothing to do with what other people think. Some goods, including luxury goods, are valued for properties that have nothing to do with what other people think ...” (Bloom 9). It appears to readers that by using examples like “teddy bears” and “mom’s cooking” the authors emphasise the fact that not only luxury goods but ordinary objects can be highly valued for its properties, for the sake of its owner’s pleasure. Another aspect that needs to be discussed is the history of objects. As Bloom stated, “... the history of an object matters to the pleasure we get from it” (Bloom 6). The pleasures we get from a product we possess are affected not only by the senses or our emotions and instincts but also by historical concepts tied to that product. When Bloom refers to the Supper at Emmaus, the painting that was found to be the work of a forger instead of Vermeer, he claims that “Its appearance did not change, just its history, but people no longer wanted to look at it” (Bloom 10). Its oil, canvas, depictions, and properties never change, but the history changed forever. This also closely relates to what Bloom defines as the history of objects. It is the “touch.” We can explore it through his statement, “... one intriguing sort of history concerns who has touched the object in the past. Consumers are more likely to buy something that has been touched or tried on by a physically attractive person. Celebrities, in particular, possess the “touch”—one reason people want objects that have had some contact with them. (Bloom 6)” Bloom emphasises the past’s grip on the present through the touches. From the touch of Rolex’s engineers on an authentic Rolex watch to JFK’s golf clubs, we can see that they all have unique stories behind them, and all of them shape our emotional attachments. Bloom suggested that luxury consumption is as much about narratives, memories, and properties as it is about aesthetics or status. Overall, this perspective does not entirely repudiate Postrel’s and Geoffrey Miller’s and Thorstein Veblen’s claims, but it expands the existence of others’ motivations behind luxury products.

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Bloom, Paul. “The Lure of Luxury.” Boston Review, 22 Oct. 2015, bostonreview.net/forum/paul-bloom-lure-luxury/.

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Paul Bloom’s essay explores motivations behinds people's attraction to luxury goods, questioning the simplistic explanations. In this essay, the author focused on the dynamics behind the reason of luxury purchases, and somewhat reflects the complexity of human's nature. Virginia Postrel argues that luxury goods attract consumers through emotions and the appealling of such goods on human's senses, highlighting the pleasure of high-quality items. Meanwhile, Geoffrey Miller and Thorstein Veblen, consider luxury goods as tools for social signaling, used to display the dominance in terms of wealth, power, and traits to others, and in certain cases, can be linked to human's instinct. By providing creative (and funny) examples, the authors expands these perspectives and illustrates that the allure of luxury products can rooted with the object’s history and deeper meaning / properties that often comes from the stories and significance attached to these goods.

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Creating this argument map was quite an challenging experience. I had never made one before (as it is not popular in the academic curriculum in my home country), and it felt a bit overwhelming at first (especially my first draft, literally a nightmare). Usually, everything will clicked in about 2 - 3 hours after doing it. But this time it did not. I have read multiple scientific reports and article before, but this is clearly way harder to read. I have to broke down Bloom's essay into different perspectives and mapped out the claims and evidence, turning pages over pages backward and forward. I struggled a lot with balancing the amount of detail to include.