In the novel "The Three-Body Problem," there is a very important concept called the "ideological stamp." In the story, it is implanted into the human brain by a machine, and it is not only indelible but also believed by the person to be their own free will.

In reality, each of us carries such ideological stamps, and they bear distinct characteristics of our era. Let's first look at a popular meme on Douyin:

The 60s and 70s generation: I will work hard to make the next generation's life better.

The 80s and 90s generation: I will work hard to make my own future better.

The 00s generation: I'll try my best, but let it be, so I can live better in the present.

This meme highlights differences in how different generations view themselves, life, and growth values.

Why these differences exist has many explanations: the environment in which they grew up, the education they received, and the abundance or scarcity of resources and wealth all influence a generation's consumer values to varying degrees.

In fact, each generation's value system has a significant impact on consumption, and different generations indeed have different consumption preferences.

Today, let's explore the mechanisms behind these consumption concepts and how we should view them.

Because the underlying algorithm of the human brain is survival, but with limited information, people are forced to use Pavlovian and Skinnerian patterns to find correlations and probabilities from limited data, thereby deriving causality. This mechanism determines that the bottom layer of human algorithms is not rational right or wrong, but rather experience learned from limited information.

Let's look at the adult learning path:

Event → Analysis → Reasoning → Causality → Emotion is just a byproduct.

But in childhood, because the prefrontal cortex is not yet developed, the child's learning path is completely reversed:

Event → Emotional current → Formation of meaning → Attempt to infer causality (even if misunderstood, it doesn't matter)

Emotion is the main power source; causality is a byproduct.

Before age 7:

The prefrontal cortex (responsible for logic, planning, self-control, hypothetical reasoning) is almost offline.

The limbic system (responsible for fear, pleasure, attachment) runs at full speed.

The amygdala is the child's "world interpreter."

The hippocampus is still developing, so memory is unreliable.

Language systems are immature, unable to construct abstract concepts.

So children do not "think about the world," but rather "feel the world and mistake their feelings for the world."

This cognitive architecture is like language learning: learning a foreign language before age 7 and after age 7 involves different brain regions. The latter requires the rational brain regions of the prefrontal cortex for calculation.

In short, children learn through primitive instincts, and the experience they gain becomes the survival architecture for their entire lives.

Emotional learning before age 7 is "implicit memory," which cannot be rewritten with language. It is not "what you remember," but "how your body learned to survive."

Implicit memory is vast, but the core is:

It is not processed by the prefrontal cortex.

It is not influenced by language.

It cannot be overturned by logic.

It often activates automatically under stress.

It survives into adulthood like a reflex.

This is why:

  • A childhood humiliation can make a person fear expressing themselves at age 40.
  • Overprotection can lead to a lifelong pursuit of "never making mistakes."
  • A feeling of abandonment can replay in adult romantic relationships.

Childhood deprivation can make people afraid to spend money, hoard goods, and be extremely safety-oriented.

This explains why many people spend their lives healing childhood wounds, and why different generations have different understandings of consumption—because their childhood environments determine most of their lifelong algorithms.

So, returning to the opening, the real ideological stamp is not implanted by a machine, but by the survival environment before age 7. It also has the characteristics of being "indelible" and "subconscious" (you think you chose it, but it was your fear that chose it).

"The so-called ideological stamp is nothing more than a piece of driftwood that the survival instinct clung to desperately before the prefrontal cortex fully developed. As adults, we have come ashore, yet we still carry this piece of wood (the stamp) while running on land."

Let's further supplement with expert perspectives:

1. Somatic Marker Hypothesis

Antonio Damasio argues that when making decisions, we do not first engage the cortex to calculate pros and cons; instead, the body reacts first. Memories before age 7 are stored not only in the amygdala but also in muscles, the gut, and the nervous system. For example, a person who grew up in a chronically stressful environment will have permanently tense shoulder and neck muscles, in a state of "battle readiness."

So, when psychologists look at the essence of consumer behavior: Many times, people consume not for "pleasure" but to "relieve the body's alarm." For instance, the 60s/70s generation hoards food because seeing an empty fridge triggers a physiological spasm in the stomach (a fear memory). The 00s generation drinks milk tea because high sugar content instantly activates the parasympathetic nervous system, forcing a tense body to "relax." Consumption is a painkiller for physical suffering.

2. Repetition Compulsion

Freud mentioned a psychological symptom called "repetition compulsion." It means that people subconsciously not only seek "comfort" but sometimes actively pursue "familiar pain." Because for the subconscious, familiarity equals safety, even if it's familiar pain.

Just the other day, I saw a blogger on Douyin mention a story about a friend who always met bad men. Their conclusion was that this woman's traits, or the qualities she was proud of, were once used to cope with pain. To nurture these traits, she unconsciously sought out similar pain.

This explains why some terrible brands or services still have customers, or why some people always fall into financial crises. Because through consumption, they are replicating the chaos of childhood to confirm, "This is indeed my world, and I am still in control."

In summary:

  1. People use limited information to derive a "survival causality model."
  2. This model is almost impossible to rewrite.
  3. All decisions are essentially executing "childhood-written algorithms."
  4. Different generations have different childhood environments, so their algorithms differ.
  5. Generational consumption differences are not fundamentally about money or culture, but about different underlying survival logics.

From "Material Scarcity" to "Meaning Scarcity"

  • 60s/70s (Solid Society): Faced with survival crises. Social structures were stable (work units, families). Their algorithm is "possession"—owning houses, savings, and job security. This is physical survival.
  • 80s/90s (Semi-liquid Society): Faced with status crises. Social classes began to solidify but still had gaps. Their algorithm is "competition"—meritocracy.
  • 00s/Gen Z (Liquid Society): Faced with existential crises. As Zygmunt Bauman said, everything is fluid and uncertain.

Gen Z's "let it be" and "live in the moment" attitude is not because they don't want to plan for the future, but because in their algorithm, the weight of the variable "future" has been systematically reduced. Because the world changes too fast, the ROI of long-term planning approaches zero. This is a rational adaptation after learned helplessness.

Going deeper, the value of a brand is essentially acting as a surrogate parent (Reparenting) for consumers.

1. Brand as a Projection of the "Ideal Parent"

  • Authoritative Parent (for 60s/70s): The brand image must be powerful, endorsed by authority, and unquestionable. This compensates for their childhood longing for a "strong protector." This represents brands with expert endorsements, CCTV-featured brands, China Time-honored Brands, and those with strong authoritative cues.
  • Coach Parent (for 80s/90s): The brand tells you to be disciplined, to Keep, to Just Do It. This caters to their childhood education to "stand out." This represents brands with elite narratives, where we must become the excellent image we see.
  • Partner/Indulgent Parent (for 00s): The brand must play with memes, show vulnerability, and be "crazy." For example, KFC's "Crazy Thursday" meme. This generation was generally lonely in childhood (only children + high-pressure education). They crave not preaching but "understanding me" and "companionship." This represents ordinary narratives that require companionship, equality, empathy, and resonance.

So:

Brands are not selling products; they are "connecting to a generation's operating system."

All consumption meaning is essentially providing a narrative patch for childhood gaps.

Similarly, today's emotional economy is merely satisfying Gen Z's "childhood survival model deficits."

Gen Z's consumption view essentially stems from "a change in survival methods in an affluent society."

People execute childhood-written algorithms. But the harsher truth might be: Consumerism thrives because it precisely exploits the "collective childhood trauma" created by modern society and offers a seemingly effective but addictive "pain relief plan."

The 60s/70s buy a sense of security;

The 80s/90s buy a sense of superiority;

The 00s buy a sense of existence.

We are all using our adult wallets to bribe the frightened, never-grown child living inside us.

【Moving Toward the C-End】The 11th China FMCG Conference

Date: March 16-18, 2026

Location: Chengdu, China