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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Old money, the nouveaux riches and Brunhilde’s marriage strategy
TL;DR: In this paper, a change in the intensity with which the suitor seeks the woman may affect the equilibrium pattern of conspicuous spending, and a sound observable financial background (old money) benefits both the potential spouse and the woman, and reduces wasteful spending on status goods.
Modeling consumer preferences for status-signaling brands: branding, pricing, and product-line decisions
TL;DR: Arreola et al. as mentioned in this paper propose the first actionable metrics of the social status signaled by brands as functions of product line prices and use the new metrics and a new model of quality choice to show that both the ability and the motivation to pursue social status through consumption are affected by the economic resources available to consumers.
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Does moral cleansing moderate the effect of evolutionary altruism on helping intention? an exploratory study
Alexa Hayley,Lucy Zinkiewicz +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the main effects of evolutionary altruism and moral cleansing on prosociality were investigated using three situational helping scenarios as dependent measures, and the effect of participants' morally-valenced recalled behavior (moral/immoral/achievement/failure) and their social proximity to a helping target (cousin/colleague/stranger) was determined.