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The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal About Human Nature Contents Chapter 1: Consumers: Born & Made Chapter 2: I Will Survive Chapter 3: Let’s Get It On (Reproduction) Chapter 4: We Are Family (Kin Selection) Chapter 5: That’s What Friends Are For (Reciprocity) Chapter 6: Cultural Products: Fossils of the Human Mind Chapter 7: Local vs. Global Advertising Chapter 8: Marketing Hope by Selling Lies Chapter 9: Darwinian Rationale for Consumer Irrationality Chapter 10: Darwin in the Halls of the Business School Chapter 11: Concluding Remarks Some Videos To Help:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qHYmx7qPes
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5fOdch-pKU
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QI2oJYsjeQ
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGC6Ou3w2Aw Introduction Gad Saad is a Professor of Marketing at Concordia University and former holder of the Concordia University Research Chair in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences and Darwinian Consumption. He was born in 1964 in Beirut but his family fled to Montreal in 1975 to escape the civil war. His works mostly focus on Evolutionary psychology and he pioneered its use in Marketing and Consumer Behavior. His different works include The Consuming Instinct we’re going to focus on today, but also The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption; Evolutionary Psychology in the Business Sciences, along with more than 75 scientific papers. Evolutionary psychology is a relatively new scientific discipline, it’s roughly 2 decades old and based on Darwinian principles. It seeks to understand the evolutionary and biological roots of human behavior. This theoretical approach aims to examine the evolutionary perspective of psychological structure. In other words, it seeks to understand which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations to humans’ environment. But it’s different from socialisation, here those psychological adaptations would actually be deeply rooted into our nature and genes, they are innate.
Evolutionary psychology is meant to explain human thought processes, emotions and actions by understanding their roots, which are all supposed to be based on our survival instinct. Professor Saad’s work in the Consuming Instinct aims to infuse evolutionary psychology into the study of consumption. He explains that according to him, consumers aren’t made, they were born like this. Indeed, he believes that “the genes hold consumer behaviour on a leash”, which would mean that we are not socialized to be consumers, our behavior would actually find its roots in our genes based on our survival instinct. Therefore, consuming is also a deep rooted instinct. Let’s take the example of culinary traditions, according to you, are they due to culture or biology? Well according to Gad Saad they turn out to be adaptations to the local environment. Indeed, the different culinary traditions would actually be based on different environmental factors like the latitude of the country, the ambient temperature, or even the food pathogens in that culture. Nature influenced it, not the culture. It’s the same for cars, you don’t buy big and expensive cars because a good marketing strategy told you to, but you do it because it's humans’ nature to use things like this as sexual signals when courting someone. Here, the big car is only a symbol of power and superiority that the male hopes the female will fall for. That’s why it’s actually the exact same thing as a peacock showing its tail. So now that we have introduced you to the book, we will talk about each of the instincts in a summarised way and give you an example of each one in advertising or different marketing strategies. Survival instinct: Self-preservation is a key driver of consumer behaviour. This survival instinct may include inherited preferences that are more adapted to the survival of our prehistoric ancestors than to us today. For example, the book talks about juicy burgers not because calorie-rich foods are good for us today, but because calorie-rich foods helped our ancestors survive in hard times, giving them a lot of energy. Following this, our taste buds may have evolved to alert us to food pathogens, our preferences may be influenced by environments and shapes associated with safety and predator-avoidance. A clear example that appeals to this instinct is the Kraft campaign presenting the upgrade of their Macaroni and Cheese. With the justification behind “With no artificial ingredients in it, it looks more appetising now than ever”. Sex Instinct:
your stomach begins to rumble from hunger, ordering McDonald’s should be on the top of your mind. *(Reported to have spent $654.7 million (USD) in 2020, roughly a $200M increase from
“I eat to live and I live to eat” → The human obsession with food
- Seen through food shows and our daily life rituals; all incorporate food within them
- From informal to formal settings: parties, orientations, workshops, fairs etc.
- E.g. first dates, weddings, family get-togethers (Thanksgiving & Christmas dinners), birthdays & even funerals
- Food-related art: Last Supper, Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, Andy Warhol’s 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans Darwinian Gastronomy ● Both prenatal & postnatal exposure to foods via amniotic fluid & breastfeeding respectively have been shown to influence a child’s subsequent food preferences ● Paul W. Sherman (Sampled cookbooks from 36 countries & 6 continents; 19 linguistic families)
- People in warmer climates are more likely to use spices
- Antimicrobial hypothesis provides a compelling explanation: Use of spices meant to combat food pathogens
- Prevalence & assortment of pathogens is greater & their diffusion rates are more rapid in warmer climates
- Meat dishes tend to contain more pathogens than vegetable dishes ● Salt & Milk case study
- People who live closer to the equator possess the gene polymorphisms that accentuate water retention; these gene variants become less frequent as one moves away from warmer climates
- Our ability to metabolise salt is inscribed in our genes
- Geographical distribution of lactose intolerance → Those who herded cattle & consumed dairy products underwent a genetic selection for a lactase-persistence allele (China: 1% of population posses this genetic mutation) The Variety Effect
- Why do succulent buffets exist? Buffets cater to our innate penchant for food hoarding
- An increase in the offered food varieties yields a corresponding increase in the total amount eaten
- By simply varying a tasteless & odourless feature of a given food item (its shape or colour) the eaten amount of food increases Barbara Kahn & Brian Wansink created different batches of M&M candies by
altering the number of colours as well as the distribution of colours within a given batch → Found that the amount of eaten candies increased by as much as 77% by simply manipulating these two features Other examples: Same findings with pasta: greater number of shapes led to a greater amount of eating In number of displayed jams (6 or 24) at a tasting booth increased the number of customers who stopped by at the booth by 20% Why do customers succumb to The Variety Effect? Evolutionary answer: our attraction to food stems from the fact we are omnivores
- maximising the likelihood of obtaining the necessary amount of varied nutrients
- minimising the likelihood of ingesting too great an amount of toxin from a singular food source → dessert effect: even though we might be calorically satiated, we cannot resist making extra room for dessert Detrimental Effects of having more choices
- Having more choices is not better than fewer → lower participation rate found in greater number of fund campaigns
- In Barry Schwartz’s book The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less → detrimental effects across a wide range of selections
- Do people prefer an ice-cream parlour that offers 10 or 50 flavours? Do they expect that a restaurant should have many dish choices or a few chef suggestions? → USA and UK: preference for greater choices likely due to mass customisation movement first came prominent in the 1980s
- Gordon Ramsay (in Kitchen Nightmares) recommends smaller and more targeted menu → helps staff and chefs, more quality control and specialisation Situational Influences on Food Intake Mood | Food availability | Situational hunger | Menstrual cycle | Food disgust
- Mood
- Eat more following happy events
- Sad moods increased consumption of hedonic foods (M&Ms, buttered popcorn) & decreased for healthier alternatives (raisins)
- Ice cream, chocolate, cookies: women’s comfort foods
- Ice cream, soup, pizza or pasta: comfort foods for men
- Food availability → “When the US sneezes, Canada catches a cold”
- Situational Hunger
○ Examined - Men’s testosterone levels were highest when driving a Porsche in a public setting. Winner and loser signals mattered when there was a viewing audience. ○ Women assign a higher attractiveness score to men in more luxurious cars → men use expensive cars to display their social status to women because women are attracted to high-status males ● Humans are hierarchical species. We assort ourselves on a dominance hierarchy and will interact with people according to their actual (or perceived) social status ● Courtship gifts ○ Sharing food as a sign of growing intimacy - Food-for-sex exchanges exist for both animals (offering meal packages in exchange for sex) and humans (going to restaurants for dates, anniversaries etc) ○ Gift-giving - giving flowers and diamonds as a sign of love ● Perfumes and the power of olfaction ○ Olfaction = one of the most powerful forms of sexual signaling and is used by innumerable species as a central element of their courtship ritual ○ Women exhibit sensorial convergence in identifying optimal males ○ Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) refers to the capacity of one’s immune system in battling infections and diseases. Prefer dissimilar to them in terms of their MHC ○ Theory can be used in the marketing and design of perfumes - self preferences of perfumes are intimately linked to one’s MHC ○ Prefer perfumes t ○ Axe Effect - highly successful advertising campaign in which a man who sprays himself with the perfume is accosted by many beautiful women - recognises a key Darwinian imperative for each sex ■ Promise of having multiple sexual, particularly appealing to men ■ Olfaction is an important element of human mate choice, particularly for women choosing prospective suitors ● High heels ○ Use of heels and pushup bras to make a woman appear more desirable ● Clothes ○ Women use their attire to highlight physical attributes while men are more likely to use clothes as a status symbol ○ Men care less about the social status of women’s attires ○ Hemline Index: correlation between hemline and economic conditions - as the economy strengthens, the miniskirts are more popular ■ Link between economic conditions and women’s attire is shaped by female intrasexual rivalry ● Cosmetics ○ Women wear cosmetics because it increases their attractiveness, women who wear cosmetics are judged by both sexes as possessing more positive personality traits and being healthier
○ Mimis cues of sexual arousal and sexual interest e.g. reddening of the lips and cheeks ○ Colour Red - a visual market of female sexual arousal, men find women who are peripherally associated with the color red as more attractive ● Deceptive Consumer Signalling ○ Fake signals have evolved for the purposes of survival e.g. obtaining food, defeating predators ○ Deceptive signals are also used for gaining an advantage in the mating game. ○ This manifests itself in the consumer arena ■ Women wearing push-up bras, high heels, makeup, plastic surgery, all these elements work as means of altering key features of their bodies and faces ■ Men purchase luxury items to deceptively fake their social status and lie about their incomes and occupational achievements. ■ Men and women are more than willing to engage in endless forms of consumer-related deception if it augments their standing in the mating market ■ The end (reproductive success) justifies the means (deceptive consumer signalling) ■ The need to falsify one's standing on mating attributes of evolutionary import via the use of deceptive products is a human universal. ■ Cultural traditions might at times alter the expression of the attribute to be faked e.g. male social status might be signalled via a Ferrari in the West but via number of cattle for Maasai men. ○ Manifested in personal ads and online chats ■ Lying about weight, age, height ● As sexually reproducing specied, many consumer purchases are related to sex. ● Men and women use a wide range of products to improve their standing in the mating market. ● Many consumer purchases serve as central features of courtship e.g. engagement rings ● Sex-specific hormones have a powerful effect on consumer arena ○ Men's testosterone levels rise when consuming conspicuously (e.g., driving a Porsche), ○ Women's menstrual cycles and associated fluctuating hormones shape their desire to advertise themselves. ● Consumers often desire ‘positional goods’ such as prestige-branded luxuries that signal social position and status through their relative costs, exclusivity and rarity. ○ Positional goods create positional externalities Conclusion Overall this is a book that examines the relationship between our evolved psychologies and how marketing and business tap into that, whether consciously or unconsciously. While culture is
luxury sports cars (as a means of signaling their status), and women are much more likely to beautify themselves (via cosmetics and provocative attire). Many consumer purchases serve as central features of the courtship ritual, including the offering of flowers and engagement rings. Sex-specific hormones have a powerful effect in the consumer arena. Men's testosterone levels rise markedly when engaging in an act of conspicuous consumption (e.g., driving a Porsche), whereas women's menstrual cycles and associated fluctuating hormones shape their desire to advertise themselves. Our sexual nature leaves an indelible mark on our consumer choices and preferences.” Chapter 4: We Are Family (Kin Selection) “This chapter identified the Darwinian forces that compel consumers to partake in a wide range of investments (such as spending patterns) meant to solidify bonds of kinship. Although families can be the source for love and nurturance, they can also serve as springboards for conflict, rivalry, and favoritism, all of which are also rooted in biological processes. Given the importance of the family in catering to our innate need for sociality, it is not surprising that the kin-based investments that we make, be it the toys that we buy our children, the love that we provide our pets, and the gifts that we offer our family members, manifest themselves in innumerable ways within the consumer arena.” Chapter 5: That’s What Friends Are For (Reciprocity) “Humans are a social species with a deep need to connect with others. Human sociality is in part driven by the evolutionary imperative to form bonds of reciprocity. These human universals manifest themselves in numerous consumer settings, such as the gifts that we offer to our close friends, the traditions of hospitality found in otherwise disparate cultures, the trust that is inherent in economic transactions, and the innate need to signal in-group membership (e.g., wearing the latest fashions, sporting a tattoo, supporting a sports team). Finally, the recent explosion of online social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, brand communities) speaks to the evolutionary forces that drive our desire for human interconnectedness.” Chapter 6: Cultural Products: Fossils of the Human Mind “Since the human mind does not fossilize, evolutionary scientists must utilize alternative means for studying the evolutionary forces that have forged the human mind. Cultural products, spanning countless cultural settings and epochs, can be construed as fossils of the human mind. A wide range of cultural products—including song lyrics, music videos, television and movie themes, and literary narratives—contain universally recurring themes that are indicative of our common biological heritage. Accordingly, the detailed study of these ubiquitous cultural remains sheds light on the Darwinian realities that have shaped the evolution of our human nature.”
Chapter 7: Local vs. Global Advertising “The local versus global debate has raged in advertising for well over eight decades without any clear solution. Is it best to create a singular ad that is transportable across cultural settings, or must one always tailor advertisements to fit individual cultures? Evolutionary psychology can help resolve the debate, as it offers the requisite framework for identifying culture-specific versus universally shared elements. For example, although color connotations and linguistic idioms are culturally bound, innate unconditioned responses to specific advertising sights and sounds including sexual stimuli, facially symmetric endorsers, and male endorsers with deep voices are universally similar. Furthermore, whereas some advertising executions might be differentially efficacious across cultural settings (e.g., whether one should use comparative ads), other advertising effects are universally similar (e.g., response to fear appeals).” Chapter 8: Marketing Hope by Selling Lies “Humans suffer from numerous insecurities, the most potent of which deal with matters of evolutionary import, including concerns with mortality, romantic relationships, sexuality, parenting, dieting, wellness, status, and social influence. Accordingly, it is not surprising that numerous peddlers of hope have historically pounced on these Darwinian insecurities and have accordingly sold the desperate-to-believe populace various “foolproof” solutions. Religion guarantees us eternal life. Cosmetic companies promise eternally youthful skin. The beauty-is-a-social-construction mantra assures us that we are all equally beautiful in our own unique ways. New age medical healers assure us that they possess the definitive cures. Self-help books provide solutions for every ailment, desire, want, and need. All these promissory vehicles constitute forms of quasi-religious belief systems, and as such are easy to take over the human mind and terribly difficult to eradicate.” Chapter 9: Darwinian Rationale for Consumer Irrationality “Nothing defines humans better than their willingness to do irrational things in the pursuit of phenomenally unlikely payoffs” - Scott Adams (Creator of the Dilbert Comic Strip) “Consumers succumb to numerous self-harming phenomena including compulsive buying, eating disorders, excessive suntanning, sexual misconduct, pornographic addiction, pathological gambling, and death-defying physical risk-taking. The standard and largely erroneous explanation espoused by social constructivists has been that consumer irrationality is rooted either in the lack of knowledge (“Consumers must be educated about the dangers of sun exposure”) or in the availability of harmful information (e.g., “Media images cause eating disorders”). Each discussed maladaptive behavior possesses a strong sex-specificity in terms of its sufferers, and this holds true across cultural settings and time periods. This suggests that these universal realities are rooted in a shared biological heritage. The irrational behaviors in question are driven by mechanisms that evolved as adaptations, which at times misfire (or are subverted), yielding the associated deleterious
a. Survival instinct b. Sex intinct c. Reciprocity instinct (correct one) d. Kin instinct
- A marketing strategy that uses the emotional part of belonging to a familiar group is using the… e. Survival instinct f. Sex intinct g. Reciprocity instinct h. Kin instinct (correct one)
- People are more likely to give gifts to a. Moderate kin b. Distant kin c. Close kin (correct one)
- Which of the four grandparents is more likely to invest more on grandchildren a. Paternal grandmother b. Maternal grandfather c. Maternal grandmother (correct one) d. Paternal grandfather
