In “The Culture of American Consumption”, Maasik and Solomon state: “To live in a consumer culture is not a simple matter of shopping […] it is also a matter of being. For in a consumer society, you are what you consume, and the entire social and economic order is maintained by the constant encouragement to buy” (87). Charles Duhigg’s “how Companies Learn Your Secrets” and Target’s statistician, Andrew Pole, support Maasik and Solomon’s statement with the personal observations and anecdotes. Duhigg, along with Pole, give reasoning behind why, in a consumer society, it is believed that we are what we consume and we are constantly encouraged to buy using examples like: Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) habitat experiments, P. & G.’s Febreeze social experiments, and Target’s system of tracking customer purchases. Duhigg uses an anecdote about a habitat experiment held by MIT to manifest Maasik and Solomon’s view of a consumer…show more content… Along with having the rats wired, they were placed into T- shaped mazes with chocolate at one end. (Duhigg) The focus in this experiment was to see how the brain functioned in this habitat. As a result of this habitat being new to the rats, they would wander aimlessly being guided by the smell of the chocolate. The sensors that were placed in the skull of the rats showed that their brain was working fiercely and it also showed the result of them being accustomed to the maze. “As each rat learned how to complete the maze more quickly, its mental activity decreased. As the path became more and more automatic, it became a habit — the rats started thinking less and less” (Duhigg). The encouragement to get the chocolate by the rats was at its highest point when they were placed into the maze at first. Sellers acknowledge the way humans think when shopping; there is always an incentive for us to buy something when we are at a
