Why the thing goes quiet

The bag didn't change between Thursday and the following Tuesday. It was as well made on day six as on day one. What changed is that you got used to it, and getting used to things is one of the most reliable facts about people.

Psychologists call it adaptation. A new thing in your surroundings gets your attention because it's new. Within days it's part of the background, and your attention goes back to whatever it was on before. This isn't ingratitude. A mind that stayed excited about every object in the house would never get anything done.

You already know this. If I asked you in general whether people get used to new possessions, you'd say of course they do. The odd thing is that you don't use the knowledge at the moment it would help. Jing Wang, Nathan Novemsky and Ravi Dhar studied that gap. They found that shoppers often fail to predict how their enjoyment of a product will fade. People hold the right beliefs about getting used to things. They don't think of those beliefs while they're deciding. When the researchers made the length of ownership more prominent, the beliefs came to mind and people's choices changed.

At ten past nine you pictured the bag on its best day. It was new, on your shoulder, on the way to a train. You didn't picture it in week three, which is the week that would have told you more. By then it's a shape on top of the wardrobe that you look past when you're reaching for a jumper.

There's a second finding worth having. Leonardo Nicolao, Julie Irwin and Joseph Goodman compared purchases of things with purchases of experiences, such as trips and meals out. They found that people adapt more slowly to experiences than to objects. That cuts both ways, because a bad experience stays bad for longer too. But it suggests that objects are the purchases we get used to fastest, and objects are what a lift purchase nearly always is.

Here's the honest objection. "Some things I bought years ago still please me every time I use them." I believe you. Look at which ones they are, though. My guess is that they share two features. You use them often, so they keep doing something for you. And you wanted them for a good while before you bought them, so the want wasn't made by one evening. The bag has neither feature. Chapter 12 comes back to this, because it's the difference between a lift purchase and a good one.

The practical point is small and it comes straight from Wang's study. Before you pay, move the picture forward. Don't ask how you'll feel when it arrives, because the answer is always "pleased". Ask what this thing will be in its third month. Where will it live, how often will you pick it up, and will you notice it's there? You're prompting your own mind to use something it already knows.

For some purchases the third-month picture is good, such as the kettle you'll use four times a day or the coat you'll wear from October to March. For a lift purchase the honest third-month picture is usually a cupboard.