The Psychology of your Anxiety Buying Habits Explained!

Consumer psychology is deeply attached to our needs and desires. For status, which leads to unexpected mental confusion over items we purchase daily. We are buying products and expecting functionality but our subconscious mind looks for validation.

An ideal fascinating example of this is called status anxiety shown within the rise of professional grade stainless steel kitchen countertops, actually used as chopping boards. Instead of using them for nutritional food preparation purposes, buyers are experiencing mental and psychological friction, by protecting the surface to maintain this perfect, flawless and expert chef aesthetic look.

When a functional tool then becomes a status symbol, it triggers an anxiety or nervous response over the very first scratch, perfectly demonstrating how our possessions and attachments end up ruling our minds and the way we feel.

Educational Disclaimer: This article discusses sensitive educational concepts and training topics. It is provided by Open College UK Limited for informational purposes only and does not replace professional or psychological advice.

It’s fascinating how the human mind warps the purpose of a purchased object to meet our inner needs. The moment our emotions and status get intertwined. We buy things to meet our needs for their utility, but our expectations turn them into something else, into symbols of who we want to be, creating a strange kind of mental conflict.

Heavy duty counter chopping boards that are actually meant to be scratched. Yet the moments the buyer places this presentable gleaming object on their countertop; a psychological change happens in their mind. They see a status symbol, and suddenly the first scratch causes frustration, disappointment, and anxiety, or stress. This product illustrates how consumer psychology and our desire for perfection can completely, override our logic and common sense.

Status anxiety!

Status Symbols and the Subconscious Mind: Why We Fear Scratching Luxury Items when a kitchen countertop chopping board becomes something other than it was intended for!

In this article I’m looking at how people see an object that they consider buying, as appealing and attractive for their kitchen. But once that person’s emotion and expectations get involved the original purpose for the item becomes something else!

There is on the market stainless-steel large chopping boards that fit neatly over, on top of or around your standard kitchen countertop. They come in small, medium and large sizes, even 1200 millimetres long and they have a 90-degree returning lip on the front edge which comes down over your kitchen counter top. Its main use is for chopping, slicing vegetables and so on. It can be easily wiped and kept clean.

Upon first appearance, the stainless-steel chopping board which is made out of mild steel is just that. It’s heavy duty and gives a clean professional chef’s kitchen look about it. These chopping boards are now big sellers because they’re clean, hygienic and look good and gives you a kitchen countertop professional edge, especially near your cooker or your range.

People are drawn to buy them because they look presentable. But as soon as they obtain it and put it in place, buyers become disappointed. Because they are no longer seeing it as something that should scratch. That’s what it’s designed for, to put scratches and cuts across it.

The stainless-steel chopping board or chopping sheet starts out as a functional tool but because it looks like a professional chef item, people mentally raise it into a high-end status feature that should be kept clean and shiny and shock horror not be used for chopping items on. It then starts to become judged by its DISPLAY appearance only and not as a tool for kitchen use.

Any scratches that appear on it or any marks or cuts after using it, is then seen as a damaged item.

The psychological mechanism at work!

Upon acquiring the stainless-steel chopping board, people no longer ask if it works? But they start asking does it stay clean and perfect looking, which is what started arising as part of the decision to buy it, when they first seen it, which is called aesthetic bias. If something looks premium, people start to assume it should remain like that.

What’s actually happening is the mind is quietly in the background, relabelling it and changing it from a chopping board, which just generally takes some slashing, cutting and hammering which allows marks, into a stainless steel pristine professional chef kitchen item.

Once people see it has presentable and any marks appearing on it starts to create a feeling of loss or damage. That’s what produces emotional reactions or vexation that they now have this damaged unpleasant item on the counter top, which is now causing a contradiction and clash of two thoughts pulling at each other in their mind.

This is demonstrated in the review sections where the item is for sale and the reviewers are bordering on irrational and criticising a scratchable surface that is designed to be used and marked but they have already decided it should be a clean chef style visual feature and this contradiction or gap between the two creates the frustration leading to the negative critical reviews. Some reviewers are saying I purchased this and it’s got a scratch on it. I sent it straight back and the quality control was terrible and so on. No one clearly checked it or they just sent it out in the hope and chance that someone would just keep it, which becomes beggar’s belief. People have lost track of what they’re purchasing it for in the first place.

Visual damage versus psychological effect

Within a week of use you’re going to have crisscross cuts all over it just the same as a plastic or especially a wooden chopping board because that’s what it’s designed for but because it looks so nice on the kitchen counter, people can’t accept it as a basic mundane chopping board, which is designed to be hammered, cut and gashed at.

The stainless-steel countertop chopping board is exactly that. It’s a practical surface for preparing vegetables and other foods and by definition it’s designed to be long lasting, durable, easy to clean and hygienic and large enough to handle other accompanying kitchen tasks like using rolling pins and flour usage tasks.

It’s functional, simple and straightforward but something very psychological is happening the moment people see it, especially when they’ve gone to a website looking for a chopping board because the chopping board takes on a whole new role. And because it’s made of stainless steel, shiny, highly polished and it’s also shown in the images or videos on the seller’s website, often, displayed on countertops in a professional kitchen setup, it then

stops registering as a chopping board and starts to look like a high-end kitchen item which gives off that chef style polished aesthetic touch which people want. And as a result, these chopping boards are very high selling items!

Most people don’t know it’s happening, but their internal expectations change fast and instead of viewing the board as something to be used with a chopper or a knife or a serrated edge, they’re seeing something that should remain clean, pristine, or perfect. And this creates a contradiction in mind about function and about appearance, colliding.

A chopping board will overtime, and especially within a few days, become a scratched, sliced at item, which is the entire point. And by using this chopping board you’re avoiding the plastic or the wood surfaces which can hold bacterias unless regularly and thoroughly scrubbed.

Because you have reclassified it as a kitchen feature ranking in a high professional kitchen style appearance and that’s where it starts to become an item that is seen as damaged. This is why there’s so many contradictory reviews, which you can go and see for yourself. Wherever you see stainless steel chopping boards for sale online, especially when there’s reviews involved, you’ll see bonkers and irrational reviews pointing out that they received a chopping board and it had a little scratch on it so they sent it straight back for a refund or another reviewer might say I only put a couple of glass bowl on it and pulled it across and it left scuff marks. Or when it was wiped over with a wet cloth it leaves watermarks or hard to remove stains.

And this is what produces the emotional element to it. When something looks this good, people naturally want to preserve that look in the kitchen and become actually protective over it. Cleaning it, wiping it, polishing it. Even the most tiniest wear, becomes blown out of all proportion than it actually is and similarly a small scratch on a plastic or wooden chopping board wouldn’t get a second thought but on the stainless-steel surface, it’s now becoming an agitation and an issue.

Even when people know exactly it’s a chopping board. That knowing gets lost. And the visual impression and what that led to the attraction to purchase, obtain and display it. It takes over and this change in perception overrides logical understanding.

On the flip side however, people who can stay real and see it for what it is. To chop and cut, have a simple experience. They use it, clean it and accept it as its natural wear and tear for what it was designed for. The board actually improves the kitchen with wear on it. It will have a certain patina worn look to it instead of it staying untouched and perfectly unmarked. And it’s just down to mindset.

So, what is the answer?

For some people, they’re not going to be able to use it as a chopping or cutting board so carry on as you are. But if you’re trying to get past this conflict then you could just go ahead and use it, put a few cuts in it a few chops in it and then it’s committed to being when it was built for. Then you’ll have to accept it that it has marks in it and crisscross cuts in it.

Personally, I would just take a knife, cut a few things, clean it off, stand back, take a deep breath, sigh and accept it and within a couple of days you will have forgotten all about it and moved on, but failure to do that will keep you locked in that mindset tiptoeing around so as not to cause the slightest mark!

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