Neurologists often consider that one of our brainâs main functions is to contribute to our happiness by ensuring that body and mind work in a balanced and harmonized manner thanks to the hormonal system. This process, called homeostasis, affects the behavior of individuals in consumer situations.
The pursuit of happiness is one of the fundamental concerns of many philosophical schools of thought and we start this book by referring to some of their ideas that could potentially orient consumer behavior. The book by FrĂ©dĂ©ric Lenoir, Happiness: A Philosopherâs Guide,1 as well as other works by various philosophers, helped us summarize the ideas that are interesting for 21st-century neuroscientists.
A first dichotomy separates thinkers who believe that happiness cannot be achieved in the world we live in and those who believe the opposite. This divergence of beliefs triggers different â sometimes opposite â buying behaviors.
The former school of thought is strongly sustained by Judeo-Christian religions. It is supported by a large number of philosophers such as Socrates, Pascal, Descartes and Kant. As happiness cannot be achieved in this world, it is essential to comply with moral rules that will enable to achieve it in another. Socrates, according to Plato, would talk about a âgood lifeâ on Earth, based on virtue and the values of the city, rather than a âhappy life.â Like Jesus, Socrates did not hesitate to sacrifice his own life in the name of a greater truth and high values, aspiring in this way to achieve genuine happiness after death. In his work, philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724â1804) summarizes this idea. For Kant, âfull and complete happiness does not exist on earth: it is an ideal of imagination.â2 One can only hope to achieve ideal happiness and eternal bliss after death. It is a reward bestowed by God on those who have lived a just and moral life.
This philosophical approach is attached to achieving sainthood rather than wisdom. It can trigger behavioral responses among some categories of consumers whose brain is culturally influenced by these beliefs.
Those who support these ideas might sometimes embrace a somewhat ascetic behavior when they are facing enticements from marketing and communication. They exhibit a preference for what is natural and reject what they consider âoverrated.â This might lead certain people to reject consumer society and brands. Those who abide by this creed are attracted to unbranded products, âhard discountâ or low-cost products. They choose the offers they deem compatible with their principles or morals (fair-trade or sustainably manufactured goods or goods offered by socially responsible corporations), products that are in harmony with nature and crafts that are closely related to it (natural or organic, strongly marked by local customs and traditions).
On the contrary, many philosophical schools of thought believe that happiness can and should be found in our world. This, however, does not necessarily mean that there cannot also be a certain form of happiness after death, except in the case of nonbelievers.
Aristotle and Epicurus are renowned for advocating a lifestyle full of pleasure.
Alexander the Greatâs teacher, Aristotle (384â322 BC) left the academy of his master, Plato, to found his own school, the Lyceum, in Athens in 335 BC. In his work Nicomachean Ethics,3 which extensively deals with the idea of happiness, he wrote that âthere is no happiness without pleasure.â For this philosopher, pleasure is an enjoyable feeling linked to the satisfaction of a need or desire of the body, but also of the mind. Pleasure is the main driver of our actions. He also advocates adopting a behavior that leads to âseeking the highest level of pleasure with the highest level of reason.â
Epicurus (341â270 BC), whose name remains to this day associated with the notion of the pursuit of pleasure, also founded his own school in Greece, the Garden. In his teachings and main writings, Letter to Menoeceus and Letters and Sayings,4 he makes a distinction between three types of desires. The first type includes the natural, necessary desires (food, drink, clothes, accommodation). The second are natural, nonessential desires (luxury clothes, fine cuisine, comfortable dwelling). The third are desires he considers neither natural nor fundamental (power, honour, pomp). To achieve happiness in our world, he recommends behaving so as to satisfy the first type, to seek to satisfy the second but to avoid the third. His pursuit of happiness was moderate and does not correspond to the image of Epicureanism we have today, which is sometimes associated with debauchery, luxury and the quest for immoderate pleasure.
In the 16th century, Michel de Montaigne (1533â1592), whom Friedrich Nietzsche would later refer to as the first modern thinker, suggested in his Essays5 to find happiness by creating âa joyful path of happiness, consistent with oneâs nature.â He advocates loving life and enjoying the pleasures it offers in a balanced and flexible manner according to the needs of oneâs own nature. The behavior he recommends, which he also adopts, consists of being as happy as possible according to his own aspirations, by enjoying the day-to-day pleasures that life offers.
In WestâEast Divan,6 Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749â1832) suggests that âhappiness consists of living according to oneâs nature, developing oneâs personality to be able to enjoy life and the world with heightened levels of sensitivity.â
Consumers abiding by this type of philosophy are more likely to adopt a hedonistic, even âepicureanâ lifestyle. They strive to enjoy the present moment and show an interest in the acquisition of consumer goods or pleasure, of luxury items.