We live in a society of total consumption: not just the physical consumption of things but also the conceptual consumption of ideas. We're always on the lookout for tasty new morsels of information and unusual experiences to add to our ever-expanding mental collections.

Mere things like your wattle and daub hut, several oxen and a shiny necklace are no longer impressive; now you need to have followed the Inca trail, formed an opinion on G. K. Chesterton's Christian apologetics and be familiar with the Higgs boson's role in a grand unified theory.

Negative conceptual consumption
The idea that people are voracious consumers of concepts is far from new, but it is only just starting to filter into the psychological literature. In an article published in the new Annual Review of Psychology, Dan Ariely and Michael I. Norton point out that conceptual consumption is especially useful for explaining why people choose certain types of apparently negative experiences.

Take horror movies for example. Over the years all sorts of explanations have been offered for why people voluntarily expose themselves to scary movies: that there is a certain type of pleasure mixed in with the fear; that they are relieved when it's over; that they enjoy the 'rush' while knowing there is no threat. But as any horror nut will tell you, there's more to it than that.

Horror movies may be a minority taste but there are all sorts of other common situations in which people choose experiences they know are going to be unpleasant. In a study carried out by participants were offered the choice of a free trip to either a Marriott Hotel in Florida or an ice hotel in Quebec. Strangely (for me anyway!) the majority preferred the ice hotel despite thinking the Marriot would be more pleasurable.

People will also happily make strange choices about food. In another study by participants were offered a choice between 'normal' flavours of ice-cream and a tasty bowl of bacon ice-cream. By now you'll be unsurprised to learn that many preferred bacon flavour despite knowing it would be less pleasurable.

The experiential CV
All three of these examples are partly explained by people's desire for conceptual consumption. When people choose the ice hotel, the scary movie and the bacon ice-cream, they are choosing more than just the experience itself. They know the movie will frighten them, the icy bed will be uncomfortable and the bacon ice-cream will be weird, but there is a clear payoff in conceptual consumption. It's not just bragging rights, they also like the very idea of each of these things and they want to 'possess' the experience.

It's also about self-image. People want to see themselves, and be seen by others, as interesting people who choose a variety of different experiences for themselves. It's what Keinan and Kivetz refer to as ticking the boxes on our experiential CVs. Collecting experiences is really very similar to collecting bottle-tops, postcards or Furbies, but much cooler -- perhaps because the balance of consumption is weighted away from the physical and more towards the conceptual.

Positive conceptual consumption
The fact that conceptual consumption can be used to understand why people choose apparently negative experiences is it's strength. Why people might choose positive experiences is less of a mystery, but the idea can still expose some interesting quirks:

Feature creep: people frequently choose products with many features which they never use. This may be primarily so they can then show off their purchase to others. Just the idea of having a better camera than other people is enough to snuff out boring thoughts about usability. Of course manufacturers are well aware of this, hence electronics are packed with endless features most of us never use.
Charity: giving to charity seems to confer positive benefits on the giver. Giving our own money to others does actually seem to make us happier than spending it on ourselves. Here it's possible that the idea of charity makes us happier than having the money or equivalent goods.

Second Life: people in virtual worlds happily convert their real-world money into virtual money to buy clothes for their avatars (the object representing themeselves) or to decorate their virtual homes. When viewed through the lens of conceptual consumption this makes perfect sense.
Looking around, conceptual consumption is everywhere. Things like books, TV programmes, blogs, newspapers and magazines -- all of which give us new ideas and new ways of seeing the world -- are just the tip of the iceberg. Even what we might think of as primarily physical consumption isn't really that physical after all. Advertisers understand this only too well: what they are trying to sell aren't just products but ideas, often in the form of 'lifestyles'.

As Ariely and Norton point out even something as simple as eating a cookie is fraught with conceptual questions. What about the diet we just started? Is the cookie organic? What will our co-workers think if they see us eating it? The questions go on and on.

Our minds love consuming concepts almost as much as our bodies crave food. Like our appetite for food, though, our appetite for ideas is only satisfied for a short period before we become hungry again, so hopefully this nugget of conceptual consumption will keep you going until the next click...

我们生活在一个纯消费的社会里：不仅有物质消费，还有概念消费。我们总是虎视眈眈地寻找那些诱人的新资讯，哪怕只是只言片语，还有一些非同寻常的体验，如此以来，就给我们那日益丰富的精神体验又添上了新的一笔。

仅仅是抹灰的篱笆小屋，几头公牛，闪闪发光的项链早已没有吸引力了；现在，你需要的是：踏上过印加之路，对切斯特顿的基督教护教理论有所见地，还要熟悉黑格斯玻色子在大统一理论中的作用。

消极概念消费

认为人类对各种概念的消费是贪婪无厌的想法已经存在了很久; 只是现在才开始出现在心理学方面的作品中。新出版的《心理学年鉴》中有篇文章，其中丹·阿里亚和迈克·诺顿指出概念消费特别有助于解释人们为什么会选择某些看上去是消极的体验。

例如：恐怖电影。多年来，人们搬出各式各样的原因解释人们为什么会主动看恐怖电影：因为恐怖中会夹杂着一丝快感，当电影结束时，会有种释放地感觉；人们享受那血压升高的一刻，并且知道是有惊无险。但是那些恐怖电影迷会说，好处还远远不止这些。

 恐怖电影可能只是少数人的爱好，通常情况下，人们还是会尝试形形色色的体验，即便明明知道不是什么愉快的体验。在一项研究中，参与者均获得一次免费旅行的机会，他们可选择入住佛罗里达州的万豪酒店或是魁北克的全冰旅馆。奇怪的是（至少对我来说！）大多数人选了全冰旅馆，尽管知道万豪那里会很舒适。

人们在选择食物时也乐意选择那些稀奇古怪的品种。另外一项研究中，参与人员可选择普通口味的冰淇淋和一盘美味的培根味冰淇淋。现在你已经习以为常了，知道有很多人会更喜欢培根味道的，就算他们知道它没那么美味。

体验履历表

以上三个例子某种程度上可以用人对概念消费的欲望来解释。当人们选择全冰旅馆，恐怖电影和培根冰淇淋时，他们选择的已经不仅仅是体验本身。他们知道恐怖电影会吓到他们，冰床也不怎么舒服，培根冰淇淋也会吃起来怪怪的，但是概念消费会带来一种明显的收获。除了获得了吹嘘的资本，他们还喜欢那些做出这些东西的“点子”，并且愿意获得那些体验。

这是关系到自身形象的事。人们在乎自己怎么看自己和别人怎么看自己，正如一些有趣的人为自己选择五花八门的体验。这些就是 凯维茨（哥伦比亚大学商学院营销学教授瑞恩•科维茨）和凯南（哈佛大学商学院助理教授阿奈特•凯南）所指的在体验履历表中勾选项的意义。收集体验极其类似于收集酒瓶盖，明信片，或Furby公仔，但是显得更酷—－可能因为这种消费更倾向于观念一边而不是物质一边。

积极概念消费

事实上，概念消费之所以可以用来理解人们选择那些看起来消极的体验，是因为它具有优点。因此为什么选择积极体验就没有那么神秘了，但是积极概念也会通过有趣的方式呈现：

功能扩充：人们常常买一些这样的产品，功能繁多却难得一用。买主可能主要是用来向别人炫耀他们所买的东西。单单想到自己有个比别人好的照相机就足以让自己忘却了照相机到底好在哪里。制造商们当然很了解这一点，所以那些电子产品总是附带一大堆的功能，却大都用不着。
 
  做慈善：捐款给慈善机构好像会给捐赠者带来些好处。把我们的钱给别人好像真的比花在我们自己什么更能让我们快乐。因此，有种想法就是，做慈善比拥有金钱或其他好东西更能使我们快乐起来。

第二人生（一种网络角色扮演游戏）：生活在虚拟世界里的人乐意将真实的货币换成虚拟货币去为他们自己的网络角色（代表他们自己的虚拟角色）购买衣服，或是装饰他们的虚拟家庭。当人们用概念消费透视这一切时，觉得非常合理。

环顾四周，你会发现概念消费无处不在。如，书籍，电视，博客，报纸和杂志—－所有这些都给了我们新的想法和探索世界的新思路—这些还只是冰山一角。甚至于我们所能想到的大部分物质消费也不算是纯物质性的。广告商自然已经对此驾轻就熟:他们的卖点不是商品而是点子，只是这些点子总是披着“生活方式”的外衣罢了。

正如丹·阿里亚和迈克·诺顿所指，即便是简简单单地吃个饼干也会牵连出一大堆概念的问题。我们不是刚刚才开始要控制饮食吗？饼干是有机食品吗？同事要是看见我在吃饼干会怎么看待我呢？有问不完的问题。

我们大脑对概念的消费和我们身体对食物的渴望几乎是同样强烈。正如我们吃东西一样，我们对想法的渴望也是只能得到暂时的满足，同样会再次面临饥饿。希望这次宝贵的概念消费能维持到你下次的猎奇行动。