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Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

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Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#281

Post by mntmoss »

pascalxus wrote: post #267
mayniac wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt the only products you buy are cucumbers, tomatoes and gas. You've chosen your phone, laptop, car, and various other branded items. Advertising very likely played a role in your decisions there. How can you actually be sure that advertising doesn't work on you? Of course, you don't see an ad on TV for a new smart fridge and immediately jump out of your sofa, wallet in hand, to go buy it. But the key thing is t…

I'm not your typical consumer. I buy the cheapest thing of each category unless there's an overwhelming reason not to. Computer: macbook pro (not because of ads but because I had to in order to develop for apple products), phone: Iphone - got it for free as a handme down from my wife. Very few of the groceries I buy have labels on them: it's all fresh fruit, veggies, things from the bulk section, almost nothing in th…

Advertising readily exploits low price consumers like you, too.

First of all, they find ways to drop quality. At first they have the good deal for a limited time. This results in social proofing - good reviews and customer approvals - that theirs is the exceptional choice - quality at low price. Then they downgrade it. But because you were already buying it, you won't look the next time.

Second, they find ways to engineer deals that lead you down a path of more expensive dependencies. You go to the supermarket, and you get your veggies, and you see a sign saying "best enjoyed with" - and there's a product. Maybe one you know and are familiar with, maybe one you don't. Regardless, you see the sign and the message and you start wondering, "am I enjoying my veggies less because I'm doing it wrong?"

The dairy industry has succeeded at this for decades, crafting all sorts of narratives about the necessity for milk, the pleasure of milk, how milk lets you have moments shared with friends. It doesn't have to have a brand name attached to reach you and reprogram you.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#282

Post by LeoTinnitus »

eloff wrote: post #33
xtracto wrote: post #8

This reminds me of an anecdote a friend told me: This friend dedicates his time in going to very rural areas/towns here in Mexico to implement government programs. At some point in the past he got to a town were the cantina had just gotten the only TV in town... apparently people in the town were generally happy, and they had everything they needed... so in their view they were not poor. But once they started watchin…

Another example, Apartheid South Africa got TV in 1976, six months later the riots started, coincidence? I think as soon as black people in South Africa could see how black people in America lived, they truly realized how bad they had it. Here it contributed to the undoing of an unjust government, so it's not always a force for evil. I think the most dangerous thing to North Korea is western media. I know the South K…

I can't remember if it was a Vice or BBC documentary but it was about how basically the poor nobody sees live. I mean the most prominent thing they mentioned was how Kim Jong Un inherited a functionalist government that didn't exist with his predecessors. Also a lot of people stand up to police or even fight back even though the cops could very well throw them in jail. The cops don't because often times a crowd of, essentially peasants, will show up not caring if they go to. So the cop realizes getting beaten up and mugged is not worth this.

I feel like if Kim Jong Un dies in the next 10 years and he doesn't have a designated successor, it'll turn into a Junta like Thailand or possibly even ones like Argentina or Portugal where they end up reuniting with South Korea.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#283

Post by LeoTinnitus »

barrkel wrote: post #240
Legogris wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was listening to the Unchained podcast when DPRK defector Yeonmi Park was a guest. She escaped from the DPRK when she was 16 and just having watched the movie Titanic (that her uncle had gotten hold of) once as a kid influenced her thinking a lot. https://unchainedpodcast.com/yeonmi-park-on-why-doing-busine...

I started reading that transcript and my BS detectors were bouncing off the charts. I think she's peddling a profitable narrative; from other sources [1], it seems clear that her position in NK was privileged in relative terms. No doubt she's had hardships, but all her incentives as a professional - what, exactly? witness? victim? - are to exaggerate the harshness of her experiences. [1] https://thediplomat.com/2014/…

Honestly I think the same way about that too, but there is just far too much video evidence against North Korea to suggest that these people are lying. Being well off in North Korea does have it's perks, but being essentially what is their middle class equivalent still is terrible. These people usually end up in Millgram experiments basically where they HAVE to do things they morally do not want to but cannot refuse because they'll lose their financial status and be stripped of their position or thrown in a camp.

Anything said about NK is not an exaggeration. So much so that South Korea has a television station dedicated to defectors who make shows themselves and produce loads of content exclusively for helping defectors acclimate to the culture as well as smuggling efforts to let them know it's better on the other side. Many of them as well are volunteers.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#284

Post by sologoub »

> If I see this $10,000 watch and then look at my watch, which I probably paid about $150 for, I might think, “Maybe there’s something wrong with me.”

That entire paragraph made me really sad and the quote is probably the saddest part. People actually think like this, and it’s unclear what, if anything, can be done to help.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#285

Post by 333c »

tombert wrote: post #231
wrkronmiller wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another possibility is that people on HN are wealthier, in part, because they are better than average at delaying gratification.

I think any doctor would tell you that the amount of fast food I eat demonstrates that I am absolutely terrible at delaying gratification :) I'm not a huge fan of the "rich people are more naturally inclined to be rich, which is why they're rich" arguments. There are plenty of examples about how the system is somewhat rigged to keep people poor.

Thanks for saying this. I think the mindset of the comment you're replying to can be dangerous.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#286

Post by 333c »

tartoran wrote: post #98
taurath wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s to get rid of the shame he feels about having an older inferior phone, frequently from peers who’ve been exposed to advertising

I personally would feel quite ashamed to have the latest IPhone, I'd feel that I'd fallen prey to apple's marketing. I live pretty well with a 5 year old SE. For the same reason I refuse to wear visibly branded clothes and am not ashamed to buy some used items. Living frugally by choice gets you back some freedoms.

The SE was released in March 2016. I know how much I love mine, so it can definitely feel like it's been five years. ;)

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#287

Post by kerkeslager »

nickelcitymario wrote: post #187
kerkeslager wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Advertising isn't inherently bad, any more than aspirations are inherently bad. It boils down to what's being advertised and how honest the ads are about it. They aren't honest about it. An honest appraisal of a product would include all relevant information, including if a competitor's product is better or cheaper, or if the product has problems that might be worse than the solution. That's what Consumer Reports-t…

> Advertising isn't there to help consumers--it fundamentally is the wrong way to help consumers. Advertising helps businesses. Businesses serve consumers. Businesses wouldn't spend a dime on advertising if it didn't need to in order to stay in business. Ergo, advertising serves consumers, albeit indirectly. > They aren't honest about it. Has any advertiser ever claimed to give you the full picture? Both sides of the…

> Advertising helps businesses. Businesses serve consumers.

No, businesses serve themselves. Corporations are not your friends. Sometimes their interests align with consumers' but not always.

> Has any advertiser ever claimed to give you the full picture? Both sides of the argument? No, of course not. It's a sales pitch. You know it's a sales pitch. They know you know it's a sales pitch. They know that you know that they're only presenting the positive sales points. You know that they know that you know.

> Where's the dishonesty, exactly?

Your claim is basically that if they don't claim to tell the truth, and everybody knows they're lying, it's no longer lying.

> How freakishly up-front do you need the world to be to live up to your standards?

How about we start with something simple like not pretending that advertisers jamming their ads down my throat is an altruistic act?

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#288

Post by kerkeslager »

manigandham wrote: post #180
kerkeslager wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Advertising doesn't contain knowledge. It's like a stopped clock: even when it's correct, you don't know it's correct, because most of the time it's not correct. And more critically, even when it is correct, it's not the complete story. I've never seen an ad that admits that their competitor's product is cheaper, or better. In fact, most ads don't even want you to know their competitor exists. So let's not pretend ad…

The knowledge is that product exists, followed by its purpose, features and benefits to you. Why would they tell you about a competitor?

They would tell me about the competitor if they were actually trying to help me. My point is that advertisers are not trying to help me.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#290

Post by bryan_w »

nickelcitymario wrote: post #138
nickelcitymario wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What bizarro world do you have to live in to think advertising is what's wrong with the world? Oh right: the tech industry. The one that thinks everything it does is going to change the world for the better.

I apologize fo the comment about the tech industry. I was going to edit it to simply take it out, but that wouldn't be terribly honest of me. So it stays. But I can't in good conscious say "hey, please don't be a jerk to me for being in advertising" and then turn around and mock the entire tech industry. That's BS on my part.

You're a good man, Charlie Brown. I understand it's frustrating dealing with these types of people. Just know that HN is a bubble and doesn't usually represent the majority of people, just a ... vocal subset of people
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