Consumer Behavior
August 19, 2026
Rationality and contagion in consumption
How adult coloring books help to understand emotions, social influence, and new market fevers
From time to time, certain products transcend their original function and become true fashion trends, influencing individual choices and collective behaviors. Adult coloring books are a particularly illustrative example of this phenomenon. According to PublishNews data, in 2015, “Secret Garden” sold 719,626 copies in Brazil, while “Enchanted Forest” reached 485,222.
A decade later, the genre regained strength: in 2025, five titles appeared simultaneously among the top 20 best-selling books. “Overnight”, in first place, with 268,180 copies, and “Hot Days” in second, with 187,127. Between these two moments, however, interest in the genre waned and practically disappeared from the market’s top positions. How to explain that a product associated with a passing fad can, years later, mobilize thousands of consumers?
Part of the answer may lie less in the objective characteristics of the product and more in how consumers attribute value and make decisions. Behavioral economics starts precisely from the observation that economic choices do not arise solely from rational evaluations of price, income, and utility. Emotions, biases, mental shortcuts, and social influence also interfere with the perception of gains and losses and, consequently, with the willingness to consume.
This perspective allows us to observe the trajectory of coloring books not only through sales but also through consumer interest over time. Google Trends shows the relative intensity of searches for certain terms and helps identify moments of greater or lesser attention.
Between 2014 and 2025, searches related to the genre gained prominence in 2015 and 2016, lost strength in the following years, and returned to growth in 2024 and 2025. The movement reveals cycles of greater and lesser appeal, typical of consumer trends that gain projection, spread, and then lose part of their initial strength. It is at this point that the phenomenon ceases to be just an editorial trend and begins to reveal something broader about how people make economic decisions.
The publishing market itself helps illustrate this dynamic. According to data from CBL/SNEL/Nielsen, the print market registered a real drop of 20.3% between 2014 and 2024. In 2020, the contraction reached 44%, while the digital market grew by 37.8% in the same period. The data show that changes in publishing consumption do not stem solely from the substitution of one format for another, but also from transformations in consumer preferences and in how different products are perceived.
It is precisely this perception of value that helps to understand the case of coloring books, presented not only as entertainment, but also associated with relaxation, mindfulness and self-care. The product essentially remains the same, but the way it is presented can alter the consumer’s perception of what they are acquiring.
This process can be understood by two mechanisms of behavioral economics. The first is the framing effect, by which the way a choice is presented alters the perception of value even without substantial changes in the product. A coloring book can be seen merely as a pastime or, when associated with well-being and stress reduction, as a self-care experience.
The second is Prospect Theory Theory, developed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, according to which gains and losses are not evaluated symmetrically. In this context, the possibility of avoiding stress, anxiety, or discomfort can increase the perceived value of the product as much as, or even more than, obtaining a positive benefit.
These mechanisms help to understand why the product can gain value for the individual consumer. Still, they do not alone explain the speed with which a preference transforms into a trend. Choices are also made in a social environment, in which visibility, popularity, and the behavior of other consumers function as references for new decisions. It is at this point that herd behavior becomes relevant to understanding how an individual preference can gain scale and turn into a consumer trend.
According to PublishNews data, the genre gained prominence in 2015, went through a period of saturation between 2016 and 2019, and registered a new peak again in 2025. The recurrence of these cycles of rise, loss of momentum, and recovery helps to show that consumer behavior does not follow a linear trajectory. In this context, loss aversion, framing effect, and herd behavior offer three keys to understanding this dynamic.
The simultaneous presence of different titles among the bestsellers also helps to visualize the collective dimension of the phenomenon. As a product gains projection, its popularity can serve as a reference for new purchasing decisions.
Instead of evaluating all alternatives in isolation, the consumer can use the behavior of others as a shortcut, reinforcing demand and increasing the visibility of their own product. This does not mean that price, income, or objective characteristics cease to matter, but it indicates that these variables coexist with emotional and social factors in the formation of value perception.
The regional dimension reinforces this reading. Google Trends data analyzed by state show that, in 2015, interest in “Secret Garden” and “Enchanted Forest” was more concentrated in the South and Southeast. In 2025, the pattern became more heterogeneous, given that “Bobbie Goods” showed a greater presence in the Northeast, while other titles maintained greater prominence in the South and Southeast.
The waves of interest, therefore, are not uniformly distributed across the territory, but assume distinct regional configurations. This behavior also allows the discussion to be broadened beyond the publishing market, since, in environments with high information circulation, products can quickly gain visibility, attract new consumers, and then lose some of their appeal.
It is precisely there that two faces of contemporary consumption appear. On the one hand, the greater circulation of information expands access to products, experiences, and consumption references. On the other hand, this same visibility can strengthen contagion mechanisms, causing the popularity of a certain good to influence its own demand. Having access to more information, therefore, does not necessarily mean making decisions less subject to social influence.
This is not to say that consumers are irrational or that their choices can be explained solely by emotions and collective behavior. The central issue is to recognize that economic rationality operates within limits and coexists with symbolic, emotional, and social components. In the case of coloring books, loss aversion, framing, and herd behavior help to understand the cycles of rise, saturation, and recovery observed over the past decade.
Ten years separate the genre’s first fever from its most recent resurgence. Titles and consumption contexts change, but the tension between individual decision and collective influence remains. The question that remains, therefore, goes beyond understanding why a trend returns and also involves discovering the extent to which our choices reflect our own assessments or are shaped by the way we perceive value, react to emotions, and observe the behavior of those around us.
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Who wrote this column
Bruna Esteves
