Have you ever wondered why you have so many notebooks you’ve never used? Or candles you’ve never lit? Or clothes that you don’t wear? And you can’t seem to part with any of these items?
这种现象被称为杂乱，即拥有过多的东西。 杰奎琳·里夫金, assistant professor at the 亨利w布洛赫管理学院, asked herself how this accumulation begins in the first place.
“I had a t-shirt that I had bought at a standard retail chain,” Rifkin said. “But in my mind I would wear it on a date night. 我会穿它去面试。 我会穿着它去参加彩排晚宴。 It was an ordinary t-shirt, but it became this thing that I needed to protect for the perfect occasion—just because I hadn’t worn it previously. 我和不同的人谈过，他们也产生了共鸣。 They said ‘I have a bottle of wine from Trader Joe's, but I've just never opened it. It's been years,’ or ‘I have this cologne that I got for free as an add-on with another purchase, but I haven't touched it because nothing seems special enough.’”
里夫金和她的合著者、宾夕法尼亚大学的乔纳·伯杰（Jonah Berger）进行了同样的对话，他们决定弄清为什么我们避免使用普通的东西，把它们当作太特别而不能使用的东西。 通过这六项研究，两人发现，放弃使用一件物品会让它看起来更特别，尤其是当有人认为他们在等待稍后的场合时。 当一件物品开始让人感觉更特别时，我们就想少用它。 As time goes on without the item being used, specialness increases further, which leads to even 少 usage—which Rifkin calls a “specialness spiral.” 物品在普通场合使用的可能性越来越小，而更有可能在少数特殊场合使用。
虽然这似乎是无害的，但里夫金分享了持有这些物品并制造混乱如何成为一种适应不良的行为。
“There's been plenty of research suggesting that clutter can be bad for our well-being,” Rifkin said. “It can mess with our ability to get work done. 它会扰乱我们的社会关系，从而导致慢性压力。 当谈到那瓶酒或那件t恤时，你等待的特殊情况可能永远不会出现。 最糟糕的情况是，那瓶酒放得太久了，它就变成了醋，或者那件衬衫放得太久了，就过时了。 You don't even get to enjoy it.”
幸运的是，还有一条出路。 里夫金建议最简单的方法是：用你的东西。
“One thing that we talked about is pre-committing to usage occasions,” Rifkin said. “If I buy a nice t-shirt, I’ll tell myself ‘I'm going to wear it this weekend.’ Setting a specific occasion or a ‘first possible occasion’ kind of commitment can break the specialness spiral. Hopefully, we’re harnessing the knowledge that can help us avoid clutter accumulation, avoid wasting time and money on possessions, and allow ourselves to actually use these things. Wearing that shirt after a few iterations of deciding not to can feel really good.”
Learn more about Rifkin’s findings on how clutter accumulates by 阅读她在《消费者研究协会杂志》上的文章.