I’ve never seen an actual study on this, but the existence of advertising pretty much confirms it is true.
The choices we make, what we choose buy or spend time on, say a great deal about how and who we want to be.
My favorite examples of this are exercise magazines and diet books: perennial top-sellers, but very rarely having any new information. All (the good ones) are variants on the basic theme of *Take in less, Move more.* But they continue to sell, because, while we truly can’t buy good health or a better body, we can buy this symbol of hope, as a testament to our desire for change.
It’s been said by others than me that everything we buy is about image (that’s the whole point of good-looking/sexy/funny people in commercials, right?). I’ll try not to seriously analyze the psyche of the mom who’s always buying the name-brand mac & cheese, but I do start praying for her marriage when she excitedly tells me the titles if three or four relationship books she just bought on Amazon.
No, I think you’re right about that. :)