As financial pressures rise and feelings of anxiety and uncertainty increase, some may find themselves looking for simple ways to feel happy, even if it means buying things they don't really need. This trend is known as tritonics, which is spending on small, affordable pleasures during difficult periods.
According to a report published by the “Psychology Today” website, research indicates that these limited purchases may give a temporary boost to the mood and restore the person’s sense of control, but relying on them repeatedly may turn them from a fleeting pleasure into an impulsive behavior. So what drives us to look for “small pleasures” when life’s pressures increase?
As usual, I started looking for the source of this obsession, and it turned out that there is a marketing term to describe it, which is “Treatonomics,” which refers to a consumer trend of spending on small, affordable pleasures during periods of stress or when the overall picture seems unclear.
According to the “Tritonics” concept, people reduce spending on vacations and large purchases while at the same time clinging to coffee, pastries, cosmetics and a million other small things that promise them a moment of happiness.
An old idea in a new economy
Tritonix is the latest expression of a phenomenon that researchers have been studying since the early 2000s, when Leonard Lauder, then chairman of Estée Lauder, noticed that lipstick sales seemed to rise during economic downturns.
Lauder called this phenomenon the “lipstick index,” which later became associated with what is known as the “lipstick effect.” Since then, researchers have found evidence of this pattern in actual spending and in scientific experiments.
Economists MacDonald and Dildar found that younger women spent more on cosmetics during the Great Recession, even as their spending on clothing declined. Psychologist Sarah Hill and her colleagues also found that simply exposing women to recession-related indicators increased their desire to purchase appearance-enhancing products.
Another study by Nechaeva and Reyes showed that women who felt more economically anxious were more likely to prioritize improving their professional appearance, suggesting that spending on appearance-enhancing products may serve a strategic function when one's financial situation feels less stable.
While research on the “lipstick effect” has largely focused on women and appearance-related spending, the upside to the Tritonix concept is that it extends the phenomenon to everyone, which makes sense. The small comforts we turn to when finances get tough are by no means a phenomenon limited to women.
How do small purchases make us feel comfortable?
Marketing researchers Selin Atalay and Margaret Milloy found that people who are in a bad mood often resort to buying small, unplanned pleasures, and that these purchases can actually improve mood on an ongoing basis, without generating the feelings of regret that we might expect.
When big things seem out of reach, a small purchase gives us an instant, simple, limited decision, but one that is still ours.
Between small pleasures and compulsive spending
The psychological benefits of these small pleasures can easily turn from a fleeting respite into a behavior akin to compulsion, especially when marketers design products and promotional campaigns in a way that specifically exploits this impulse.
Accidentally and intentionally indulging in these pleasures may be one of the most humane ways in which we cope with difficult periods in our lives, and there is an entire industry built around it.
But perhaps the most important word here is “deliberate.” Exercising self-control means knowing when you are the one who chooses this pleasure, and when the pleasure, in one way or another, has chosen you.
Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, are preparing to return to Britain for an extended period, 6 years after they gave up their royal duties and left the country, but without abandoning their home in California, in a move that sources close to the family say aims primarily to remain close to King Charles, and to provide the opportunity for their two children, Archie (7 years old) and Lilibet (5 years old), to build stronger relationships with members of the royal family.
The Page Six website, affiliated with the New York Post, quoted sources as saying that Harry’s meeting with his father, King Charles, last July was an important point in making the decision. Especially in light of the king's suffering from cancer.
A royal source said: “I know Charles is a big reason for their return.”
Last May, Harry spoke about his tense relationship with his father, saying: “I don’t know how much time my father has left.”
The goals of the return are not limited to rapprochement with the king, as Archie and Lilibet are scheduled to attend school in Britain, allowing them to communicate more with family members and friends close to their parents.
But reconciliation with Prince William seems far-fetched, as sources indicate that the estrangement between the two brothers continues, with William refusing to speak to Harry.
Therefore, Archie and Lilibet are not expected to meet regularly with William and Kate Middleton's children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
On the other hand, Harry and Meghan enjoy a close relationship with Princess Eugenie, Harry's cousin, her husband Jack Brooksbank, and their children, and their relationships also extend to other friends and family members in Britain.
Despite the return, the couple will not sell their luxurious home in Montecito, California, which is worth about $14.5 million, which confirms that the step is not a final return to Britain.
The issue of security remains the most prominent obstacle to Harry and his family’s stay in the United Kingdom. Especially since the prince has been waging a legal battle for years to obtain security protection similar to that received by senior working members of the royal family.
Harry said last year: “I cannot see a world in which my wife and children are returned to the United Kingdom at this stage.”
Harry (41 years old) and Meghan (45 years old) left Britain for the United States in 2020 due to severe disagreements with the royal family, and since that time, they have continued to strongly criticize the royal family and its institutions in interviews and television documentaries, as well as in Harry’s autobiography.
We live in a world full of distractions; As I was writing this sentence, I received an alert for a new email on my computer, two private messages, and an alert on my phone about my daily practice series in an app, writes Art Markman(*).
Frequent external influences
With all these external influences, how do you - I wonder - maintain your focus on anything? You're probably having difficulty with this; You may not be able to work for more than a few minutes at a time without your mind interrupting you to do something else. So, even in the absence of anything external forcing your attention...it's still your mind that's keeping you from focusing.
What exactly is happening?
It is natural to view the brain as a computer that processes information as an essential part of the thinking process. There has been a long history of likening the brain to the most complex machine of every age.
In fact, if you consider some linguistic metaphors related to anger, such as the phrase “boiling with anger,” or “I went out for a walk to release the charge of anger,” you will find that they reflect remnants of the “hydraulic theory of mind” derived from the steam engines whose vocabulary entered the language in the nineteenth century.
The brain sets timings
But what the “computer” metaphor about the brain ignores is that the brain contains important mechanisms for controlling timing. After all, your brain also controls your body, and controlled movement requires executing steps at specific moments in time. These timing mechanisms help link information processing and muscle coordination to support complex actions.
These timing mechanisms also allow the brain to interrupt you when it thinks something important is about to happen, which contributes to your distraction. If you're constantly being derailed by emails, private messages, phone alerts, and other technology, your brain is anticipating something important that needs to be checked every few minutes. If a short period of time passes without stopping what you are doing, your brain kicks in and urges you to browse your technology devices to make sure you have not missed anything.
How to process the matter:
Get rid of distractions
You didn't acquire this set of habits overnight, and you won't get rid of them overnight either. Instead, you should start training your mind slowly to give you more time to focus on what is right in front of you at that moment.
* Start by reducing potential distractions in your surroundings: If you have your phone next to you, and multiple windows are open on your computer at all times waiting for potential updates, you are creating an environment full of rapidly changing sources of information that are pressing you to check them. Minimize open windows and turn your phone face up to reduce the ability of the surrounding environment to capture your attention and reinforce your habit of distraction.
When you find yourself wanting to stop what you're doing to check email, messages, or something else, continue your work a little longer; Read another paragraph or page, write a few more sentences, or continue working on the spreadsheet.
Over time, this will benefit your ability to focus; Your internal mechanisms will slowly learn that you do not need to be interrupted so frequently. This will give you more time to work without internal conflict; Which will enable you to be more productive.
* Changing the work environment: Finally, if you urgently need to work on a very important matter that requires your full focus, consider changing your usual work environment. Use a meeting room in the office or go to a coffee shop; Since this new environment will not be as tightly connected to your usual distractions as in your office, you may have the opportunity to break free from internal distractions.
