ABSTRACT
The term conspicuous consumption (CC) is used to describe extravagant spending on luxuries or leisure activities that display one’s wealth to enhance prestige, economic power, and indicate membership of a superior class, rather than to meet basic needs. The term originated in Veblen’s (1899) The Theory of the Leisure Class, in which he argued that “the conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of securing the respectability of the gentleman of leisure” and included, for example, tapestries, high-quality clothing (such as high heels), expensive entertainment, feasts, jewelry, and other non-functional items that were used to signal status. Many of these items also characterize contemporary consumption.
