Winner takes all: Success enhances taste for luxury goods, study suggests

Footballers in flashy cars, City workers in Armani suits, reality TV celebrities sipping expensive champagne while sitting in hot tubs: what drives people to purchase luxury goods' New research suggests that it may be a sense of being a 'winner' - but that contrary to expectations, it is not driven by testosterone. Social competition is pervasive in our daily life - whether it is in terms of fighting for the top job, competing for friends and popularity or even growing up in a wealthy, successful family. Yin Wu While we may sometimes make expensive purchases because of the high quality of a product, these items often represent status symbols, a phenomenon termed 'conspicuous consumption'. Evolutionary psychologists claim that conspicuous consumption may be comparable to ostentatious behaviours or elaborate physical characteristics seen in the animal kingdom. A peacock's tail may be energetically costly to build, but may serve as an indicator of genetic quality; similarly, conspicuous consumption may represent a costly display of wealth that serves to increase an individual's social status. Previous studies have suggested that testosterone plays a key role in human social status seeking, with elevated levels of the hormone being associated with more dominant and aggressive behaviour in men. It has also been suggested that testosterone levels increase in response to an individual winning a competition, and fall in response to losing.