Name: 價格會影響你看待物品的價值嗎？價格心理學大剖析！ (Why We Hate Cheap Things)
Uploaded: 2021-09-10T21:01:20.000Z
Duration: 7 min 40 s

程度副詞

We don't think we hate cheap things, but we frequently behave as if we rather do. Consider the pineapple.

我們不覺得自己討厭便宜貨，但我們的表現卻是如此。鳳梨就是一個很好的例子。

Columbus was the first European to be delighted by its physical grandeur and vibrant sweetness.

哥倫布是第一個愛上鳳梨的歐洲人，他愛上鳳梨外在的瑰麗和豐盈的甜蜜。

He brought some back to Europe, but pineapples proved extremely difficult to transport and very costly to cultivate.

於是他想帶一些回家，但鳳梨極難運送，栽培又非常昂貴。

For a long time, only royalty can afford to eat them. Russia's Catherine the Great was a huge fan, as was Charles II of England.

很長一段時間內，只有皇室吃得起鳳梨。俄國的凱薩琳大帝和英國的查理二世都是鳳梨的頭號粉絲。

A single fruit in the 17th century sold for today's equivalent of £5000.

17 世紀，一顆鳳梨要價相當於現在的 5 千英鎊。

The pineapple was so exciting and so loved that in 1761, the 4th Earl of Dunmore built a temple on his Scottish estate in its honor, and Christopher Wren had no hesitation in topping the south tower of St. Paul's in London with this evidently divined fruit.

當時的鳳梨熱潮非常誇張，1761 年，蘇格蘭的丹摩伯爵四世甚至在他的蘇格蘭莊園蓋了神廟，以表示對鳳梨的敬意，英國建築名家雷恩也是同好，他在倫敦聖保羅大教堂南塔頂端毫不猶豫地雕上這顯然被神話化的水果。

Then, at the very end of the 19th century, two things changed: large commercial plantations of pineapples were established in Hawaii, and there were huge advances in steamship technology.

但是 19 世紀末出現兩項巨變：夏威夷廣植大片鳳梨田，加上蒸氣貨輪科技的革新。

Transport cost plummeted and unwittingly transformed the psychology of pineapple eating.

貨運價格大跌，潛移默化地改變了食用鳳梨的心理。

Today, you can get a pineapple for around £1.50.

現在一顆鳳梨只要約 1.50 英鎊。

It still taste exactly the same, but now, the pineapple is one of the world's least glamorous fruits.

味道和以前並無不同，但現在鳳梨是世上最平凡無奇的水果。

It's never served at smart dinner parties, and it would never be carved on top of a major civic building.

絕對不會出現在晚宴餐桌上，或是刻在公共建設上當造型。

The pineapple itself hasn't changed, only our attitude to it has.

鳳梨並沒有變，改變的是我們的態度。

Contemplation of the history of the pineapple suggest a curious overlap between love and economics.

鳳梨的故事顯示，人們的喜愛程度和經濟學有重疊之處。

When we have to pay a lot for something nice, we appreciate it to the full.  Yet, as its price in the market falls, passion has a habit of fading away.

當好東西必須花大錢才能買到時，我們會非常珍惜。一旦價格降低，熱情往往會退卻。

Naturally, if an object  has no merit to begin with, a high-price won't be able to do anything for it, but if it has a real virtue and yet a low price, then it's in severe danger of falling into neglect.

當然，如果品質本就不好，高價並不會提高它的價值，但若是物美價廉，那就極有可能被忽略。

It's a pattern that we see recurring in a range of areas, for example, with a sight of clouds from above.

這是我們在許多領域都觀察到重複的模式，空中雲景就是一例。

In 1927, a hitherto unknown airmail pilot called Charles Lindbergh became the first man to complete a solo crossing of the Atlantic in this plane the Spirit of St. Louis.

1927 年，迄今仍沒沒無聞的航空郵件飛行員查爾斯．林白駕駛聖路易斯精神號，達成史上第一次單人飛越大西洋。

He was awestruck and felt he was becoming for a time almost god-like.

他被雲頂風景震懾，一瞬間覺得自己好像是上帝。

For most of the 20th century, his experience remained rare and extremely costly.

20 世紀的大部分時間裡，能體驗林白經歷的人仍然很少，價格也非常昂貴。

There was therefore never any danger that the human value of crossing an ocean by air would be overlooked.

因此，當時人類飛越海洋的價值不可忽視。

But this lasted only until the arrival of the Boeing 747 and a cheap plane ticket in the summer of 1970.

直到 1970 年夏天，波音 747 的出現加上便宜機票釋出，改變了這個情況。

Now, almost no one looks out of the plane window anymore.

現在搭飛機的時候，幾乎沒人會看窗外了。

Why then do we associate cheap prices with a lack of value?

為什麼低價會讓我們覺得沒價值呢？

Our response seems a hangover from a long pre-industrial past.

我們的答案似乎來自前工業化時代。

For most of human history, there truly was a strong correlation between cost and value.

人類歷史上大多數時候，價格往往反映了品質。

The higher the price, the better things tended to be, because it would simply no way both for prices to be low and quality high.

價格越高，品質通常越好，因為想要高品質，價格就不可能低廉。

Everything had to be made by hand, by expansively trained artisans with raw materials that were immensely difficult to transport.

所有東西都必須手工打造，經過技藝精湛的工匠巧手打造，並且選用最難運送的素材。

The expensive sword, jacket, window, or wheelbarrow were simply always the better ones.

最昂貴的寶劍、外套、窗戶或獨輪手推車往往都是最好的。

This relationship between price and value held true in an uninterrupted way until the end of the 18th century, when, thanks to the industrial revolution, something extremely unusual  happened.

高品質就等於高價這樣的觀念，直至18世紀末都是如此，其後由於工業革命，發生了顛覆性巨變。

Human beings worked out how to make high-quality goods at cheap prices because of technology and new methods of organizing the labor force.

人類找到低價生產好商品的方法，就是運用科技和新的人力整合模式。

However, despite the greatness of these efforts, instead of making wonderful experiences universally available, industrialization has inadvertently produced a different effect.

然而，雖然工業革命成就驚人結果，卻沒有讓大眾享有原本昂貴的體驗，反而意外地造成了不同的影響。

It seemed to rob certain experiences of their loveliness, interest, and worth.

工業革命似乎讓一些經驗失去了原本的可愛、有趣和價值。

It's not, of course, that we refuse to buy inexpensive or cheap things. It's just that getting excited over cheap things has come to seem a little bizarre.

當然我們並不會拒買便宜的東西。但是因便宜貨而興奮的狀況，卻變得有些奇怪。

One is allowed to get very worked up over the eggs of the sturgeon, £100 for a small pod, but we have to be very circumscribed by one's enthusiasm for the eggs of a chicken, 12 for £2.

我們可以因為一小盒就要價 100 英鎊的魚子醬興奮不已，但如果是 1 打只要 2 英鎊的雞蛋，我們就不能顯得興高采烈。

There is an intimidating hierarchy operating in the background, shaping what we're allowed to be grateful for, and fill that we lack and must have.

這些反應背後有令人生畏的心理分級制度，形塑我們可以感恩的對象，並填補我們缺乏和必須擁有的東西。

The price tells us something very special is going on here, but it maybe going on in a cheaper thing, too.

高價表示商品非常獨特，但低價品也可能十分珍貴。

The answer lies in a slightly unexpected area: the mind of a 4-year-old.

答案就在意想不到的地方：在 4 歲小孩的腦袋裡。

Here he is with the puddle. It started raining an hour ago.

他現在在水窪旁邊。一小時前開始下雨。

Now, the street is full of puddles, and there could be nothing better in the world, the riches of the Indies would be nothing next to the pleasures of being able to see the rippling of the water created by jumping one's boots.

現在，街道上布滿水窪，世上再也沒有比這更好的了，金山銀山都比不過雙腳踏水激起的水花。

Eddies and whirlpools, the mind new waves, the oceans beneath one, it's all fascinating.

漣漪、漩渦、心靈的新浪潮、其下的海洋，一切都令他著迷。

Children have great advantages: they don't know what they're supposed to like, and they don't understand money, so price is never a guide of value for them.

小孩有這些優勢：他們不知道應該要喜歡什麼，也不懂錢．所以對他們而言，價格和價值沒有關聯。

They'll spend an hour with 1 button; one buys them the £49 wooden toy made by Swedish artisans and finds that they prefer the cardboard box that it came in.

一顆按鈕就能讓小孩玩上一小時；有人買了 49 英鎊的瑞典手工原木玩具給他們，他們卻更愛玩具的包裝紙盒。

They prefer the nail and screw section at the DIY shop to the fanciest toy department.

他們喜歡手工藝品店的螺絲釘區，更勝於漂亮的玩具部門。

A child might be deeply surprised, even shocked to learn that a USB stick can be had for just over £1.

如果他們知道 USB 隨身碟只要 1 英鎊多，可能會非常驚訝甚至嚇到。

Children would be right if prices were determined by human worth and value.

孩子會以為價格是由人力成本與商品價值所決定。

But they are not, they just reflect what things cost to make.

然而事實並非如此，價格只反映了製造成本。

The pity is therefore, that we do treat them as a guide to what matters, when this isn't what a financial price should ever be used for.

可惜的是，我們的確用價格來衡量事物的重要性，但這並非價格原本的用意。

We can't directly go back to childhood, but we have got people who can help us in this area: artists.

我們已經回不去小時候，但還有人能幫我們打破思維：藝術家。

They are the experts recording and communicating their enthusiasms which, like children, can take them in slightly unexpected directions.

他們紀錄並傳達自己的熱情，像孩子一樣，熱情能帶領他們到出乎意料的方向。

The French artist, Paul Cézanne, spent a good deal of the late 19th century painting groups of apples in his studio in Provance.

19 世紀末，法國畫家塞尚花了許多時間在普羅旺斯的畫室中繪製蘋果靜物畫。

He was thrilled by their texture, shapes, and colors.

蘋果的質地、形狀和顏色都令他興奮不已。

He loved the transitions between the yellowy golds and the deep reds across their skins.

他愛上蘋果金黃與深紅交錯的果皮顏色。

Cézanne had all the all-love-and-excitement before the apple that aristocrats once had for the pineapple.

塞尚對蘋果愛不釋手就像過往貴族對鳳梨的熱情一樣。

Cézanne, in his studio, was generating his own revolution, not an industrial revolution that would make once costly objects available to everyone, but a revolution in appreciation, a far deeper process that could get us to notice what we already have to hand.

塞尚在他的畫室中進行個人革命，不像工業革命能讓所有人取得一度昂貴的商品，塞尚的革命更深層，是欣賞的革命，讓我們注意到已經擁有的事物，學習知足。

Instead of reducing prices, he was raising levels of appreciation, which is a move that's perhaps more precious to us economically because it means that we can suddenly get lot more great things for very little money.

不降低價格，塞尚反而是提高了欣賞程度，這個做法對我們來說也許更經濟實惠，因為這樣，我們突然能用很少的錢換來更多更好的東西。

We need to rethink our relationship to prices.

我們應該重新思考人與價格的關係。

We've been looking at prices in a wrong way.

We fetishize them as tokens of intrinsic value.

我們以為價格反映的就是內在價值。

We've allowed them to set how much excitement we were allowed to have in given areas.

我們讓價格決定我們對任何特定領域的熱情。

But prices would never meant to be like this.

We're breathing too much life into them, and therefore dulling too many of our responses to the inexpensive world.

我們太看重價格，對便宜貨的反應變得遲鈍。

We are astonishingly already a good deal richer than we are encouraged to think we are.

令人驚訝的是，我們已經比我們自己以為的還要富有很多。