Neophiliacs are people who love everything new or novel. While most people have some element of this trait in their personality, there are some folks who have an almost unstoppable draw to every whizzy new electronic gizmo. Or maybe they just have to have the latest combination of strappy sandals and hip-hugging jeans.
These neophiliacs are, in effect, every marketer’s dream.
And now a team of researchers have provided these consumers with just about the greatest excuse ever for justifying their expensive compulsion to buy the newest and coolest. They can't help themselves.
It turns out some people may, in fact, be more genetically predisposed than others to wanting the newest toys, gadgets and fashions.
In scientific mumbo jumbo, it seems that genetic differences mean that people produce different variations of a mitochondrial enzyme called monoamine oxidase A. That’s according to research from the Yamagata University School of Medicine in Japan, which was recently published in the scientific journal Psychiatric Genetics and mentioned in the New Scientist magazine.
The researchers found that one form of this enzyme was “significantly associated with higher scores of novelty seeking.” In other words, people who produce that form of the enzyme are more likely to have novelty-seeking traits in their personality than others.