Willemijn van Dolen | Quality vs. quantity: personal preference predicts debt
The month of December and the traditional gifts raise the same question every year: do you go for quality or quantity? According to columnist Willemijn van Dolen, research shows that the answer to this question reveals something else as well: whether you’ll wake up in January with an empty bank account or not.
The holidays are the prime time for impulse purchases: gifts, outfits, Christmas deals, “just one more thing.” For students on a tight budget, December can be a particularly challenging month. Do you opt for one high-quality gift that someone will enjoy for years, or several small trinkets that are mainly appealing because they’re cheap?
Empty bank account
This is the classic trade-off between quality and quantity. New research shows that your tendency toward quality or quantity isn’t just a seasonal whim—it’s a stable personal preference. That preference determines whether, in this expensive December month, you’ll wake up in January with an empty bank account or not.
Until now, it was thought that such choices depended mainly on the context: you choose quality for a mattress but quantity for cleaning supplies. However, new findings, based on multiple studies involving thousands of consumers, show that this preference runs deeper. Some people systematically choose the more expensive, high-quality option, while others consistently go for quantity, regardless of what they’re buying.
And this has direct consequences. Consumers with a preference for quantity tend to spend more on average, borrow money more often, and accumulate more debt. Specifically for students, those with a quantity preference were more than twice as likely to have a student loan. And if they had a loan, the amounts were higher. In other words, those who lean strongly toward quantity often end up with higher student debt.
“Just a few euros”
So why does cheap turn out expensive? Because many small, inexpensive purchases add up without you noticing. Individually, they cost little, making it harder to keep track of your total spending. And since each purchase is “just a few euros,” it’s less obvious what else you could have done with that money.
Your quality-versus-quantity preference is thus an important—but often overlooked—driver of your holiday shopping behavior. My holiday tip: don’t let low prices drive you crazy. And while everyone is thinking about New Year’s resolutions—like eating healthier, exercising more, or doomscrolling less—here’s an unexpected but particularly practical addition to your list: choose quality over quantity. Students who buy with a focus on quality end up spending less, borrowing less, and accumulating less debt—a gift to your future self. Thank me in January.
