Claudia Townsend, Associate Professor from the University of Miami Business School, joins Marketing Matters to discuss her research on aesthetics and self-affirmation, revealing that people who pick something more pretty feel better about themselves.
The broader implications of the study also reveal that this self-affirmation also prevents a natural bias against other opinions and makes us more open to hear the arguments and become more understanding of those with different opinions.
On the reverse, those who are already self-affirmed don’t seem to have a strong desire for good looking products. She feels this confirms that we tend to buy pretty things to make us feel better.
Claudia also discusses her current research project focusing on aesthetics and luxury, digging into the opposite of aesthetics, ugly luxury. She points out the current Gucci line, which she claims as purposely ugly.
The study points out that these ugly designs help identify these items as luxury brands, which some people are gravitating to.
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