Psychology of collecting
The psychology of collecting is an area of study that seeks to understand the motivating factors explaining why people devote time, money, and energy making and maintaining collections. There exist a variety of theories for why collecting behavior occurs, including consumerism, materialism, neurobiology and psychoanalytic theory. The psychology of collecting also offers insight into variance between similar behavior that can be recognised on a continuum between being beneficial as a hobby and also capable of being a mental disorder. The large diversity of different types of collected objects and variance of collecting behaviors across these types has also been subject to research in psychology, marketing and game design.
Collecting is known to be a common behavior, with one estimate suggests that 40% of United States households engage in some form of collecting behavior, with another source suggesting a global estimate closer to 30% assuming low variance between countries.
Motivations for collecting
Although collections often include physical objects, marketing research theorises that collection may be in pursuit of something less tangible such as an experience, idea or feeling. This forms a foundation for applying theories of consumerism and materialism, which posits some intrinsic value separate from monetary value such as luxury, passion, spirituality, solidarity or nostalgia that motivates consumer behavior. The social environment in which collecting occurs may also lead to competition over acquiring objects, and cooperation in the form of sharing knowledge about objects, which according to the theory motivates researching, cataloging, displaying and admiring collections. Motives are not mutually exclusive, and different motives may combine or intersect for different collectors. Since these motivations are not restricted to a particular stage of life, collecting is sometimes considered a lifelong pursuit which can never be fully completed.Virtual forms of collecting are diverse, and can vary from collectible objects like equipment, characters, vehicles or mounts, to less material possessions such as skins in video games or achievements, or currencies and objects valued primarily for rarity, memorability, or market value. These virtual collections may have effects on game mechanics, or be acquired to reflect the personality of players through appearance.
The scope of collecting behavior in academia is difficult to define due to its large scope and many functions. It can include physical and virtual objects, along with intangible objects such as collecting jokes or proverbs. This difficulty is illustrated by the following quote:
Comparison to hoarding
Collecting as a hobby can become hoarding or compulsive hoarding, differing in that covering a large amount of living area with possessions leads to significant distress or impairment. Compulsive hoarding, also known as hoarding disorder, is a diagnosable mental disorder in the DSM-5 and is closely related to obsessive-compulsive disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Collecting, hoarding and compulsive hoarding are considered to lie on a continuum of the same underlying behaviors, and assessment of these behaviors generally falls into two general categories of obsessive-compulsive behavior with hoarding subscales, and hoarding measures independent of obsessive-compulsive behavior.The crossover from collecting as a hobby, to hoarding as maladaptive behavior, has also been expressed in anecdotes. Bryan Petrulis, an American autograph collector, stated "It gets addictive, just like gambling, drugs or sex. It's like putting a coin in a slot machine. It might not pay off this time, so you put another quarter in and keep doing it until you are tapped out or finally hit the jackpot."