Fad

Pet rocks were a short-lived fad in the 1970s.

A fad, trend or craze is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation or social group and which impulse is followed enthusiastically by a group of people for a finite period of time.

Fads are things or behaviors that have achieved short-lived popularity, but fade away.[1] Fads are often seen as sudden, quick spreading, and short-lived.[2] Fads could include diets, clothing, hairstyles, toys, and more. Some popular fads throughout history are toys such as yo-yos, hula hoops and dances such as the Macarena and the twist.[3]

Similar to habits or customs but less durable, fads often result from an activity or behavior being perceived as emotionally popular or exciting within a peer group or being deemed "cool" as often promoted by social networks[4] A fad is said to "catch on" when the number of people adopting it begins to increase to the point of being noteworthy. Fads often fade quickly when the perception of novelty is gone.[4]

Overview

The specific nature of the behavior associated with a fad can be of any type including unusual language usage, distinctive clothing, fad diets or frauds such as Pyramid schemes. Apart from general novelty, fads may be driven by mass marketing, emotional blackmail, peer pressure, or the desire to "be hip".[5] Fads may also be set by popular celebrities, e.g. the highly popularizing effect of Oprah's Book Club.

Though the term trend may be used interchangeably with fad, a fad is generally considered a quick and short behavior whereas a trend is considered to be a behavior that evolves into a relatively permanent change.[6]

In economics, the term is used in a similar way. Fads are mean-reverting deviations from intrinsic value caused by social or psychological forces similar to those that cause fashions in political philosophies or consumerisation.[7]

Sometimes people use the words “fad” and “trend” interchangeably. Fads can be distinguished from trends in three ways: their reason for rise, their incubation period and life span, and their scope. Trends have explainable rises, and are driven by functional needs.[8] They reflect deep-rooted human desires and needs, while fads are generally driven by the emotional need to purchase.[9] This emotional need can come from the hype that surrounds the product. Trends rise slowly over time, but fads’ popularity spike quickly and they end up dying out just as quickly. Fads might last for just weeks or months.[9] Scope is also a factor. A trend encompasses several brands and products which can reach a large variety of people. A fad typically encompasses just one brand, or product, with limited appeal and a narrow scope.

An example of a fad would be Beanie Babies. Beanie Babies do not meet many functional needs of humans; their hype is what helped to bring in more customers, not necessarily their functionality. Fads tend to have a huge surge in popularity, and then disappear.[10] Beanie Babies became very popular for a few years in the 1990s, but then their popularity quickly dropped, and has steadily been dropping since their peak in the 1990s. Beanie Babies were made by one company and had a narrow scope. Some more examples of fads include pole sitting, dancing the Shake, and the Tamagotchi.[10]

An example of a trend would be handbags. Trends are driven by functional needs, and handbags were created for functionality. Trends tend to rise in popularity more slowly.[10] The demand for handbags has steadily increased over the years. As for their scope, different types of people use handbags for different reasons: to carry things such as money, personal items, clothes, children’s things, and more. There are also many different brands and types of handbags available. Trends possess some dexterity, which allows them to adapt through the years. Some more examples of trends include healthy living, eco-friendly cars and ebooks.[10]

Formation of fads and how they spread

Many contemporary fads share similar patterns of social organization.[11] There are a few different models that can be used to look at fads and how they spread.

One way of looking at the spread of fads is through the top-down model. The top-down model argues that fashion is created for the elite, and from the elite, fashion spreads to lower classes.[11] Early adopters might not necessarily be those of a high status, but they have sufficient resources that allow them to experiment with new innovations.[11] When looking at the top-down model, sociologists like to highlight the role of selection. The elite might be the ones that introduce certain fads, but other people must choose to adopt those fads.[11]

Others may argue that not all fads begin with their adopters.[11] Social life already provides people with ideas that can help create a basis for new and innovative fads.[11] Companies can look at what people are already interested in and create something from that information. The ideas behind fads are not always original; they might stem from what is already popular at the time. Recreation and style faddists may try out variations of a basic pattern or idea already in existence.[12]

Another way of looking at the spread of fads is through a symbolic interaction view. People learn their behaviors from the people around them.[2] When it comes to collective behavior, the emergence of these shared rules, meanings, and emotions are more dependent on the cues of the situation, rather than physiological arousal.[2] This connection to symbolic interactionism, a theory that explains people’s actions as being directed by shared meanings and assumptions, explains that fads are spread because people attach meaning and emotion to objects, and not because the object has practical use, for instance.[13] People might adopt a fad because of the meanings and assumptions they share with the other people who have adopted that fad. People may join other adopters of the fad because they enjoy being a part of a group and what that symbolizes.[1] Some people may join because they want to feel like an insider.[1] When multiple people adopt the same fad, they may feel like they have made the right choice because other people have made that same choice.[1]

Termination of fads

Primarily, fads die out because all innovative possibilities have been exhausted.[12] Fads begin to die out when people no longer see them as new and unique like they once did. As more and more people follow the fad, some people might start to see it is being “overcrowded,” and it no longer holds the same appeal.[1] Many times, those who first adopt the fad are the ones who are the first to abandon it.[1] They begin to recognize that their preoccupation with the fad means they are neglecting some of their routine activities, and they begin to see the drawbacks to the fads.[12] Once the faddists are no longer producing new variations of the fad, people begin to realize their neglect of other activities, and the dangers of the fad. However, not everyone completely abandons the fad; there are often parts of the fad that may remain.[1]

A study was conducted to look into why certain fads die out quicker than others. A marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, Jonah Berger and his colleague, Gael Le Mens, studied baby names in the United States and France in order to help explore the termination of fads.[9] According to their results, the faster the names became popular, the faster they lost their popularity.[9] Something else they found was that the least successful names overall were the ones that became caught on the most quickly.[9] Fads, like baby names, often lose their appeal just as quickly as they gained it.

Collective behavior

Fads can fit under the broad umbrella of collective behavior, which are behaviors engaged in by a large but loosely connected group of people.[12] Other than fads, collective behavior includes the activities of people in crowds, panics, fads, fashions, crazes, and more.[12] Robert E. Park, the man who created the term collective behavior, defined it as “the behavior of individuals under the influence of an impulse that is common and collective, an impulse, in other words, that is the result of social interaction.”[12] Fads are seen as impulsive, driven by emotions; however, they can bring together groups of people who may not have much in common other than their investment in the fad.

Collective obsession

Fads can also fit under the broad umbrella of “collective obsessions.” Collective obsessions have three main features in common.[12] The first, and most obvious sign, is an increase in frequency and intensity of a specific belief or behavior.[12] A fad's popularity increases in frequency and intensity pretty quickly, which is one characteristic that distinguishes it from a trend. The second is that the behavior is seen as ridiculous, irrational, or evil to the people who are not a part of the obsession.[12] Some people might see those who follow certain fads as unreasonable and irrational. To these people, the fad is ridiculous, and people's obsession of it is just as ridiculous The third is after it has reached a peak, it drops off abruptly, and then it is followed by a counter obsession.[12] A counter obsession means that once the fad is over, if one engages in the fad they will be ridiculed.[12] A fad's popularity often decreases at a rapid rate once its novelty wears off. Some people might start to criticize the fad after, pointing out that it is no longer popular, so it must not have been "worth the hype."

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Best, Joel (2006). Flavor of the Month: Why Smart People Fall for Fads. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520246263.
  2. 1 2 3 Aguirre, B.E. Jorge L.; Mendoza, Jorge L.; Quarantelli, E.L. (1988). "The collective behavior of fads: The characteristics, effects, and career of streaking". American Sociological Review – via Proquest.
  3. ↑ Griffith, Benjamin (2013). "College Fads". St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture – via Gale Virtual Reference Library.
  4. 1 2 Kornblum (2007), p. 213.
  5. ↑ Domanski (2004), p. 147–159.
  6. ↑ Arena (2001), p. 341.
  7. ↑ Camerer (1989).
  8. ↑ Cohen, Bruce. "How to Spot the Difference Between Fads and Trends". Supermarket News.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Heussner, Ki Mae. "7 Fads You Won't Forget". ABC News.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Burke, Sarah. "5 Marketing Strategies, 1 Question: Fad or Trend?". Spokal.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Suzuki, Tadashi; Best, Joel (2003). "The Emergence of Trendsetters for Fashions and Fads". Sociological Quarterly – via Proquest.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Killian, Lewis M.; Smelser, Neil J.; Turner, Ralph H. "Collective behavior". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  13. ↑ Conley, Dalton (2015). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-93773-2.

References

  • Arena, Barbara (2001). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Money with Your Hobby. Alpha. ISBN 978-0-02-863825-6. 
  • Aguirre, B.E. Jorge L.; Mendoza, Jorge L.; Quarantelli, E.L. (1988). "The collective behavior of fads: The characteristics, effects, and career of streaking". American Sociological Review – via Proquest.
  • Best, Joel (2006). Flavor of the Month: Why Smart People Fall for Fads. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520246263.
  • Burke, Sarah. "5 Marketing Strategies, 1 Question: Fad or Trend?". Spokal.
  • Camerer, Colin (1989). "Bubbles and Fads in Asset Prices". Journal of Economic Surveys. 3 (1). 
  • Cohen, Bruce. "How to Spot the Difference Between Fads and Trends". Supermarket News.
  • Conley, Dalton (2015). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-93773-2.
  • Domanski, Andrzej (2004). "Collective fascinations (fads) and the idea of ephemeral culture". Kultura i spoleczenstwo (Culture and society). 48 (4). Archived from the original on 2011-07-18.  (review/summary)
  • Griffith, Benjamin (2013). "College Fads". St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture – via Gale Virtual Reference Library.
  • Heussner, Ki Mae. "7 Fads You Won't Forget". ABC News.
  • Issitt, Micah L. (2009). Hippies: A Guide to an American Subculture. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-36572-0. 
  • Killian, Lewis M.; Smelser, Neil J.; Turner, Ralph H. "Collective behavior". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  • Kornblum, William (2007). Sociology in a Changing World (8th ed.). Wadsworth Publishing. ISBN 978-0-495-09635-1. 
  • Sparks, Jared; Everett, Edward; Lowell, James Russell; Lodge, Henry Cabot (1899). The North American review. 168. New York: North American Review Publishing Co. 
  • Suzuki, Tadashi; Best, Joel (2003). "The Emergence of Trendsetters for Fashions and Fads". Sociological Quarterly – via Proquest.
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