Open AccessJournal Article
Blatant Benevolence and Conspicuous Consumption: When Romantic Motives Elicit Strategic Costly Signals
TLDR
In this article, the authors examined the possibility that conspicuous displays of consumption and benevolence might serve as ''costly signals'' of desirable mate qualities, and found that romantic motives seem to produce highly strategic and sex-specific self-presentations best understood within a costly signaling framework.Abstract:
Conspicuous displays of consumption and benevolence might serve as \"costly signals\" of desirable mate qualities. If so, they should vary strategically with manipulations of mating-related motives. The authors examined this possibility in 4 experiments. Inducing mating goals in men increased their willingness to spend on conspicuous luxuries but not on basic necessities. In women, mating goals boosted public--but not private--helping. Although mating motivation did not generally inspire helping in men, it did induce more helpfulness in contexts in which they could display heroism or dominance. Conversely, although mating motivation did not lead women to conspicuously consume, it did lead women to spend more publicly on helpful causes. Overall, romantic motives seem to produce highly strategic and sex-specific self-presentations best understood within a costly signaling framework.read more
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Going green to be seen: Status, reputation, and conspicuous conservation.
TL;DR: Supporting the notion that altruism signals one's willingness and ability to incur costs for others' benefit, status motives increased desire for green products when shopping in public and when green products cost more (but not less) than nongreen products.
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Microbes, mating, and morality: individual differences in three functional domains of disgust.
TL;DR: This work investigates a 3-domain model of disgust and introduces a new measure of disgust sensitivity, which shows predictable differentiation based on sex, perceived vulnerability to disease, psychopathic tendencies, and Big 5 personality traits.
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Renovating the Pyramid of Needs: Contemporary Extensions Built Upon Ancient Foundations
TL;DR: This work revisits the idea of a motivational hierarchy in light of theoretical developments at the interface of evolutionary biology, anthropology, and psychology and proposes a renovated hierarchy of fundamental motives that serves as both an integrative framework and a generative foundation for future empirical research.
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The evolutionary basis of risky adolescent behavior: Implications for science, policy, and practice
Bruce J. Ellis,Marco Del Giudice,Thomas J. Dishion,Aurelio José Figueredo,Peter Gray,Vladas Griskevicius,Patricia H. Hawley,W. Jake Jacobs,Jenée James,Anthony A. Volk,David Wilson +10 more
TL;DR: The evolutionary model contends that understanding the evolutionary functions of adolescence is critical to explaining why adolescents engage in risky behavior and that successful intervention depends on working with, instead of against, adolescent goals and motivations.
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Viral marketing: Motivations to forward online content
Jason Ho,Melanie A. Dempsey +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the relationship between individualistic and altruistic motivations and the frequency of forwarding online content and investigate if high trait curiosity can indirectly lead to more forwarding by increasing the amount of online content consumed.
References
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Book ChapterDOI
Evolution and consumer behavior
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss what it means to use an evolutionary approach to generate predictions, and discuss two specific evolutionarily informed theories that have uncovered novel insights into consumer behavior.
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Saving Can Save from Death Anxiety: Mortality Salience and Financial Decision-Making
TL;DR: Evidence that saving protects from existential anxiety, and probably more so than spending, is provided.
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Helping others or oneself: How direction of comparison affects prosocial behavior
Ann E. Schlosser,Eric Levy +1 more
TL;DR: This article found that people making downward comparisons are more likely to view giving as a means of expressing altruistic values (e.g., to give back and be a better person) compared to those making upward comparisons.
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Physically-attractive males increase men's financial risk-taking.
TL;DR: For example, this article found that men who see attractive males take greater financial risks than those who do not, and that when the average heterosexual man sees males who are more physically attractive than he is, he is motivated to increase his desirability as a mating partner to women, prompting him to accrue money, and taking financial risks helps him to do so.