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Are you subconsciously making excuses to upgrade your phone?

By Cookie Monster - on 21 Dec 2016, 3:00am

Are you subconsciously making excuses to upgrade your phone?

Do you "accidentally" break, lose and damage your phone days or weeks before the launch of a new model? Well, this behavior is actually normal according to a recent study conducted by Columbia Business School.

The social phenomenon, known as "the upgrade effect", explains why people are more likely to neglect their existing devices when a newer model is about to be released. It turns out that people need to create a reason or excuse to justify their purchase and subconsciously lose or damage their devices.

“We would feel guilty about upgrading without a reason—but if our current product were damaged or depleted, we’d have a justification to upgrade without appearing wasteful,” Bellezza of Columbia said in a statement. “So, we use our phone in the rain or leave our laptop behind at airport security without being aware that our carelessness has an underlying motivation.”

The Columbia Business School supported "the upgrade effect" through two studies which include looking at a dataset of 3,000 lost iPhones and an online survey of 602 mobile phone owners. In the case of the lost iPhones, it is found that the number of lost iPhones increases closer to the availability of the next model.  The online survey also reveals that the availability of an upgrade leads to product neglect. Here's a video ad from Virgin Mobile to help you understand "the upgrade effect" better:

We have a better and more economical alternative for you; instead of coming up with excuses or "deliberately" losing your device, why not  trade in or sell your it to offset the purchase of the newer model?

Source: Journal of Marketing Research via Mashable

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