From Wikipedia:
Pluralistic ignorance is a situation in which a majority of group members privately reject a norm, but incorrectly assume that most others accept it, and therefore go along with it. This is also described as "no one believes, but everyone thinks that everyone believes."
If you look at recent data from Pew research, Christmas materialism appears to be a classic example of pluralistic ignorance:
- 87% of people say time with friends/family, or religious reflection is their favorite part of Christmas
- 5% say gift exchange or shopping is their favorite part
- 65% say materialism/shopping/cost is their least favorite part
Nevertheless, 86% of Americans buy Christmas presents, spending about $900 on Christmas per year, which exceeds the amount of money the average person has set aside for emergencies (less than 39% of Americans have $1000 available for an emergency).
Some reasons for this could be:
a) There is a taboo around talking about money with friends and family
b) The average person watches about an hour of commercials per day, while only socializing about 30 minutes per day, meaning advertisement is a more consistent voice in our lives than our friends and family
c) Around the time of the Industrial Revolution, there was a concerted effort by the upper classes to turn Christmas from a public celebration into a private family event with a focus on toy gifts (which, thanks to new manufacturing processes, lower classes could afford) as a means of social control
Citations for data and further info here: http://www.vacounseling.com/pluralistic-ignorance-christmas/
Submitted November 22, 2018 at 10:43AM by juncopardner2 https://ift.tt/2QhE7OM
