Evolutionary psychology Flashcards
- Natural selection - Sexual selection
What is evolutionary psychology?
Evolutionary psychology is an emerging paradigm that seeks to unify the fields of evolutionary biology and cognitive psychology, as applied to the human condition” (Saad and Gill, 2000: 1006).
What is natural selection and sexual selection?
- Natural selection: adapting to environment → survival
- Sexual selection: enhanced/special traits → mate selection
What are key principles of evolutionary psychology?
Principle 1: The brain functions as a computer.
Principle 2: Our neural circuits were designed by natural selection to solve problems that our ancestors faced during our species’ evolutionary history.
Principle 3: Consciousness is just the tip of the iceberg → complex
neural circuitry supporting and regulating different activities.
Principle 4: Different neural circuits are specialized for solving different adaptive problems.
Principle 5: Our modern skulls house a stone age mind.
What are domain specific mechanisms which are evolves psychological mechanisms?
Domain Specific Mechanisms are specialised mechanisms with different functions.
Give examples of psychological mechanisms and then the function?
- Fear of snakes - To avoid poison.
- Preference for food rich in fats and high sugar - Increase calorific intake.
What are the key neural mechanisms biasing/influencing consumer behaviour?
- The Survival Circuit: Solves problems relating to survival and is the source of basic “instincts” across the human species.
- The Kinship Circuit: Solves problems relating to family and kin, resulting largely from parental investment needs.
- The Reciprocation Circuit: Solves problems relating to survival in a social group and concerned primarily with the management of social exchanges.
- The Reproductive Circuit: Solves problems relating to reproduction and is the source of evolved sex differences.
What is the survival circuit?
- In order to reproduce, mammals must first survive long enough to reach adolescence and find a mate
- Hunger-related hoarding tendency.
- All societies - preferences for “unhealthy” options (fat, sugar) over “healthy” ones.
What is the Foraging theory (Stephens & Krebs, 1986) and how does it relate to consumer behaviour?
- Derived from a combination of evolutionary psychology and
behavioural economics. - Based around the Optimisation Principle – animals seek the
highest return on their investments (Krebs 1978, 1980 – optimal foraging). - E.g. meerkats → seek the greatest caloric intake for the least amount of energy expended
- Consumer behaviour applications…
- Foraging theory and the equations associated with it are also used in e-commerce to inform website design
- Information and amount of time – consumer decision making.
What is the Kinship theory?
- Solving problems relating to family and kin.
- Resource allocation
- Meerkats vs. Humans
- “Survival of the fittest“ → modern evolutionary theory defines fitness not by how long an organism lives, but by how successful it is at reproducing.
- Inclusive fitness of an organism is the sum of its classical fitness (how many of its own offspring it produces and supports) and the number of equivalents of its own offspring it can add to the population by supporting others.
- An organism can improve its overall genetic success by cooperative social behaviour.
What is the Kinship theory in relation to consumer behaviour?
- Parental investment.
- A family’s needs and expenses vary considerably depending on who lives at home.
- Raising a child up to age of 21 years all costs £230,000 (Guardian, 2016).
- Children and Family decision-making.
What is the reciprocation circuit?
- The Reciprocation Circuit - solves problems relating to survival in a social group and concerned primarily with the management of social exchanges.
- Altruism (e.g. giving to charity; helping others) denied by some Darwinian supporters such as Hamilton (1960) → ‘the selfish gene’ (i.e. own survival).
- Dawkins (1976) suggests this view on altruism misunderstands the nature of altruism and the reproductive environment of our ancestors.
What relation does the reciprocation circuit have with consumer behaviour?
- Trivers (1971) → Reciprocal altruism is an adaptive mechanism that evolved as a result of the fitness benefits of food-sharing, coalition formation, and predator avoidance.
- Reciprocation and consumer behaviour.
- Seminar 1 on gift-giving; pre-assessment clinic.
What is consumption and group membership? Kinship and reciprocation examples
- All human societies display evidence of signalling group membership through consumption activities.
- Modern tribal societies – social groups display allegiances more in the face of victory – sports fans, student college affiliation, etc.
What is sexual selection?
Sexual selection does not adapt the individual to the environment but
does enhance traits involved in the mate acquisition (Sinervo, 1997).
What is the reproduction circuit?
- Reproduction circuit → solves problems relating to reproduction and is the source of evolved sex differences.
- At different life stages and in different circumstances, there will be a trade-off between survival & reproduction.
What is the waist hip ratio from sexual attractiveness?
- Universal standard with regards to judging physical attractiveness of women (Singh, 1993)
- ‘Magic number’ = 0.7
- Not cultural or media driven
- Signals healthy women → ‘passing on the good genes’.
What are the 2 different views in defining beauty according to sexual attractiveness?
2 different views in defining beauty → beauty standards are:
- Driven by the biological legacy; people in different cultures generally agree on which faces are attractive (Cunningham et al., 1995).
- Dictated by culture and society (e.g. Berry, 2000).
What do men look for?
- Male → the paternity conundrum → males should favour promiscuity (Trivers, 1972).
- Health and youth → information processing relating to physical appearance is quicker for men.
What do women look for?
- Females select mates on the basis of their ability to acquire, protect and
share resources. - Potential to acquire & parental investment.
- Men who appear healthy and strong, indicators of “good genes” and reproductive potential.
- All of these criteria have been observed across cultures & over time (Buss, 2007).
- Because of greater investment and risk, females should favour monogamy (Trivers, 1972).
What’s the link between sexual selection and consumer behaviour?
- Concern for physical attractiveness among both genders
- Clothing, shoes, accessories and make up.
Cosmetic surgery: - A sign of women becoming more empowered and having more income [according to social constructionists].
- Ensuring that the traditional male perceptions of beauty are met.
What’s the link between sexual selection and advertising?
- Different reactions/preferences to nudity in ads
- Evolutionary psychology explanation:
- Keenness toward short-term mating → men possess a tendency of arousal by the visual stimuli of the female body (Symons, 1979).
What are the limitations of evolutionary psychology?
- Evolutionary approach does not include the role of socialisation and idiosyncratic life experiences in the development of the sex differences.
- Socialisation model – accounts for gender differences in social behaviour (Archer, 1996).
- Men and women are differentially socialised to play different roles in society due to historical division of labour (women = homemakers; men = employees).
- This is changing!!
- Decisions can ALSO be dictated by norms, rules, morality and ‘rationality’
- Ethical considerations – aspects of EP theory should not be used in isolation and to present women (or men) in a sexualised manner!!
