Author Diane Ackerman analyzes craving in the New York Times. Some of our cravings, she says, come from evolution. A taste for fatty foods helped our hominid ancestors consume enough calories to survive, for example. The desire to hold on to someone when we are frightened probably is partly a result of evolution and partly a learned behavior.
If you think about it, human history is largely the story of how our species is driven to acquire things, especially more things than we actually need. We build, we grow, we purchase, we steal, we hoard, we conquer. It's safe to say that most human civilizations have encouraged craving.
What is new, Ackerman writes, is the way one part of our current civilization has turned the cultivation of craving into science. This would be consumer research. Yes, researchers are learning how to tap into our evolutionary wiring to make us want to buy stuff.
For example, new research has shown that people in a down mood are drawn to products that are pleasurable to touch, whereas people in a good mood are more likely to be "sold" on visual appeal. In other words, sad people desire the feel of the creamy hand lotion, while happy people like the pretty box it comes in.
"This research suggests that marketers may be able to segment their markets based on the affective propensities of the consumer, and prioritize tactile and visual quality for these different segments," the authors of one research paper wrote. "A dollar invested in the 'correct' attribute will generate more pleasure, and hence, will be more likely to be rewarded in terms of higher sales."
I think the attribute that� most appeals to my affective propensities is a big sign saying "final markdown," but let's go on ...� certainly, the role of sensation to incite us to buy things is not new. Generations of bakers have relied on the irresistible lure of the smell of fresh-baked bread to bring in customers. Consumer products companies long have kept track of how packaging and design make a product more desirable (why liquid laundry detergent is nearly always blue and never brown). More recently, used car dealers have found that "new car" scent spray helps move the merchandise.
The Buddha taught that dukkha (roughly, the unsatisfactoriness of life) is caused by trishna or tanha (thirst or craving). You may have heard that eliminating desire is the key to enlightenment. Well, maybe.
In Buddhist teaching there is more than one kind of desire. Lobha is desiring something that we think will make us happy, like another new pair of shoes. Sooner or later, some of us notice that giving in to lobha creates nothing but a temporary uptick in our affective propensities. The new shoes become just shoes, and then we want something else to give us another "fix."
The desire for sexual pleasure is kamacchanda (Pali) or abhidya (Sanskrit). I suspect this kind of craving is more deeply wired into us than lobha, since what is pleasurable often relates to something that helped our ancestors survive and procreate. Lobha can be unlearned; abhidya, I'm not so sure. I've heard of very disciplined monks who have eliminated their sensual desires, but I think most of the time the best we can do is stop our sensual desires from jerking us around and getting us into trouble.
There is also upadana, or attachment. There are four aspects to upadana, which include attachment to sensual pleasure. Although I understand that some monastic orders advise disciplining oneself to not enjoy sensations, it's more common to understand that enjoyment is fine; it's attachment that's a problem.
So, it's fine to enjoy the taste of fresh-picked strawberries while you are eating them, but a problem if you continue to crave the strawberries when they are gone, or if you stuff yourself uncomfortably full of strawberries, or if you don't share the strawberries with others.
Another aspect of upadana is the attachment to belief in a permanent self. I think there is an element of upadana in much consumerism, when we desire things because we think they will enhance our status, and when we think that the stuff we own defines who we are.
Market researchers know how to push all those desire buttons, and they're getting better and better at it. It's an interesting exercise to look at advertising and consider what kinds of desire the ad is designed to stimulate. It's often a mix of all three.
The larger problem is that much of the world's economy is driven by people buying more and more stuff, to an unsustainable degree. The consumerist culture is unhealthy for humans, other living beings, and the planet itself. I suspect I'd have a hard time selling that perception to the consumer researchers, though.
See also: "Greed and Desire: Buddhism vs. Consumerism."
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