The abstractness of luxury

The purchase of luxury goods is relatively exclusive, limited, and often merely hypothetical. Thus, luxury goods may be perceived as more psychologically distant than ordinary goods. Based on the link between psychological distance and abstract mental representation, we hypothesized and found in three studies that both consumers and advertisers describe luxury products in more abstract language than they describe ordinary products, and that abstract product descriptions are perceived as more luxurious than concrete product descriptions.

► Consumers mentally represent luxury goods more abstractly than ordinary goods. ► Products are seen as more luxurious when described abstractly (vs. concretely). ► Real descriptions of luxury products are more abstract than those of ordinary goods.