The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption

The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption applies Darwinian principles to consumption and to the products of popular culture that most appeal to people. Its claim is that our behaviours, cognitions, emotions and perceptions in the marketplace carry adaptive reasons, and that this lens explains selections as varied as choosing a mate, the foods we eat and the gifts we offer. The book maps consumption phenomena onto four Darwinian modules, namely survival, reproduction, kin selection and reciprocal altruism, and works through appearance enhancing products and services, financial and physical risk taking, the use of sexual imagery and depictions of women in advertising, and cultural products including television, film, songs, music videos, literature, religion and art. A further strand argues that several forms of what the book calls dark side consumption, among them pathological gambling, compulsive buying, pornographic addiction and eating disorders, have a Darwinian origin. One of its more pointed proposals is that advertising and media content take the forms they do because they reflect an evolved human nature, rather than because they construct that nature, which reverses the causal direction favoured by social constructivist accounts.

Written from the publisher's description and table of contents on the Routledge page for the book.

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• Gad Saad