Voluptas, Goddess of Sensual Pleasure: How Consumers Deal With Pros and Cons of Voluptuary Consumption

The current paper aims at exploring the phenomenon of voluptuary consumption in Western societies. Based on a preliminary analysis of the literature, we propose that voluptuary consumption can be defined by five main traits (i.e., luxury, superfluity and waste, hedonism, indulgence and self-gift, conspicuousness). In an empirical research, performed using the diary research technique and the projective technique, we investigated voluptuary consumption associated to chocolate. Voluptuary consumption emerges as a pendulum between rational self-restrain and indulged sensorial consumption. The inescapable bodily pulses are enmeshed in a social discourse of consumption that, at the same time, legitimate and control voluptuary consumption.

Citation:

Stefano Pace, Lia Zarantonello, and Daniele Dalli (2011) ,"Voluptas, Goddess of Sensual Pleasure: How Consumers Deal With Pros and Cons of Voluptuary Consumption", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 465-466.