It’s a research which ladies are likely to despise — buying just one designer item can trigger a serious and dangerous spending spree for years to come. For their three-year-long research, a team led by the University of Houston studied consumers, their spending patterns and how easily their purchases were swayed by design element in any product, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The results found that when people were given a designer item and this item did not match anything in their current wardrobe they would nearly always chose to buy more designer items — to ensure they had the total designer look — rather than return the item.
Researchers looked at shoes, necklaces and pieces of furniture. Participants were given items that were objectively deemed to be “designer” or have high aesthetic elements in them. After a while they were offered to return the product in return for money.
The great majority chose to keep the products and buy further items in order to match the pieces — be it a necklace or an armchair.
“In talking to people, it turns out that this is a pretty common occurrence. We buy something we really like — after all what could be so wrong in purchasing a cute purple sweater or a unique little side table for the hallway? But, we take it home and that’s when it happens — these items become really hard to give it up. So we buy more.”
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End of an era: Larry King hangs up suspenders
Los Angeles: Veteran CNN talk show host Larry King hangs up his famous suspenders on Thursday, after a quarter of a century of interviewing the powerful and famous.
The 77-year-old, who will be succeeded by former British journalist Piers Morgan, is finally retiring from Larry King Live, the show he has presented on the Atlanta-based news network since 1985.
Typically combining high politics with showbiz news and gossip, interviewees on his final shows this week have included Barbra Streisand and former British Premier Tony Blair.
Born Larry Zeiger in Brooklyn, the CNN icon has become one of the most recognisable figures on US television, after previously anchoring a national radio show for seven years. Over the decades the gravel-voiced broadcaster has quizzed everyone who is anyone on his nightly programme, including every US President since Gerald Ford. Other highlights included Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. —AFP