Drinking In The Vortex
Hello readers! I’m glad you’re back to read my second post
about my house, also known as The Vortex. If you haven’t read my first post
yet, I recommend you go back and read it to learn how our house came to its
name and get some background information on its inhabitants.
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| Home sweet Greenwood |
My current goals for The Vortex include surviving Halloweek
without any hospital visits or further damage to our house and using my primary
group influence on my roommates to affect their behaviors (Angell, 2017). Because
we live together and are united by similar goals (to have a good, fun, weird senior
year), we compose a primary group and I can influence group members via peer pressure (Angell, 2017).
In this post, I will be outlining some trends that have
emerged in the two months’ duration we have been living here. Specifically, I
will be focusing on liquid consumption trends. This seems to be a safe bet as
the top drawer of our dishwasher rack gets full literally twice a day.
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| At 948 greenwood a mug isn’t just for coffee or tea; it is for water, mixed drinks, soup, catching fruit flies, and wine, too. |
1st Trend: La Croix in Excess
La Croix. Everyone’s mom, stuck up aunt, little sister,
great grandma, and summer internship boss is drinking it these days. “100%
Natural” La Croix Sparkling Water is all the rage. But why? The name screams
pretention, the taste is lackluster, yet it continues to occupy large amounts
of precious space within the two refrigerators shared between the eight of us.
I’ve recently discovered Zevia and have found it to be far
superior in taste and variety of flavors while still boasting the same
accolades as La Croix: flavored, sparkling, zero-calorie water with no
artificial sweeteners. I’m going to try to enforce this shift from pompous La
Croix to delectable Zevia.
2nd Trend: Craft Beer
You would think a house full of broke college girls would be
lacking in the craft beer department, but alas, it’s everywhere in this house.
Rachel works at a brewery, Roxy has an Oberon sun tattoo on her foot, Claire E.
frequents Jolly Pumpkin, and I hate beer. I have begun to strategically place
6-packs of cider around the kitchen to slowly introduce it as a nice, viable
beverage option for these beer lovers.
3rd Trend: Strawberry Lemonade Svedka
Why are we always drinking this? It tastes gross, it doesn’t
provide great value for its price point, it is INCREDIBLY sticky when spilled, provides
MASSIVE hangovers, but it is still our liquor of choice.
You would think this might be the easiest trend to break
because there is seemingly not much reasoning behind our consumption of this
product, but for this reason I think it might actually be the hardest one. I
mean don’t you want to get drunk off a liquor that does flips and exerts lightning
bolts??
In order to inspire change in the house, I’m going to be
banking on one psychological concept that has proven its success for me in past
with obtaining friends and preventing my boyfriend from breaking up with me:
the mere exposure effect. This effect occurs when people illogically like
something merely because it is familiar to them (The Mere Exposure Effect, 2016). If I begin to place new beverage options around the house and drink them often in front of others, I can use this effect and my group influence to inspire change. Stay tuned for the next blog post to see if my efforts come
to fruition! It doesn’t matter if you’ll be looking out to applaud my success
or mock my failure; all that matters to me are your views.
Bonus Content:
While not related to consumption (yet slightly related to
beverages), there is another extremely relevant trend within our household I
feel needs to be addressed.
Six out of the eight members of this house have boyfriends. The two girls who do not have boyfriends (Roxy and Taylor) frequent Scorekeepers
Bar & Grill far more often than the rest of the house (but alas, have yet
to find the men of their dreams). Does this correlation hint at causation?
Looks like I either need to a.) stop them from going to
Skeeps and see if they have more success with commitment or b.) go to Skeeps
more often and see if my boyfriend breaks up with me?!?
Only time will tell.
References
Angell, A. (2017, October 2). Chapter 8: Group and Social Influence. Lecture presented in Michigan, Ann Arbor.
The Mere Exposure Effect. (2016, March 05). Retrieved October 26, 2017, from http://socialpsychonline.com/2016/03/the-mere-exposure-effect/
Sydney White gifs: http://fuckyeah-chickflicks-blog.tumblr.com/post/43762068506
Svedka video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nchj8WHnbiE
Any photos appearing foggy are accredited to Roxy Glasser's broken phone camera
Libby,
ReplyDeleteI loved reading about the vortex! It’s so true that as consumers we tend to stick to what we know, unless some sort of group or situational influence comes along to make us change our habits (Angell, 2017). It’s interesting that your group influence worked on Rachel, but the other girls stuck to La Croix (which I don’t get the point of either so I feel you on that). It’s also interesting that the girls in your house found value in craft beer that could not be replaced by cider, no matter the season or taste. This probably has to do with your housemates’ self-concept, as craft beer probably sets off a schema in their minds about what kind of person drinks craft beer that appeals to them (Angell, 2017).
In terms of your house’s bubbly drink cravings, I recommend pitching kombucha to the rest of the gang. It’s a fermented drink so it’s bubbly, but it’s also a natural tea that has TONS of health benefits. It’s full of probiotics, hydrating and also caffeinating, aids digestion, and replenishes electrolytes. Because of this and the fact that its fermentation gives it a tiny bit of alcoholic content (a little hair of the dog never hurt anyone), I’ve found that kombucha is a great hangover cure. By using these value points and appealing to self-concept to purcahse the drink (its trendiness and relevance in the health community), you might just be able to manipulate your roommates to change their bubbly drink of choice (Angel, 2017). https://draxe.com/7-reasons-drink-kombucha-everyday/
Great job!
Angell, A. (2017). Lecture on Personality, Lifestyles and Self-concept. University of Michigan Ross School of Business, Ann Arbor, MI.
Angell, A. (2017). Lecture on Situations. University of Michigan Ross School of Business, Ann Arbor, MI.
Angell, A. (2017). Lecture on Perception, Learning, and Motivation. University of Michigan Ross School of Business, Ann Arbor, MI.