The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal About Human Nature

374 Pages·2011·3.12 MB·english

by  Gad Saad

“Gad Saad has cleverly applied the insights of evolutionary psychology
to our behavior as consumers. He is able to explain a huge amount of
behavior using these insights. As consumers, we will profit from
understanding the sources of our own behavior. Marketers will also
benefit from understanding the deep evolutionary basis of the behavior
of their customers. Moreover, the book is entertaining and readable. I
recommend it strongly.”
—Paul H. Rubin,
Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Economics,
Emory University
“Gad Saad clearly and strongly shows how our evolved preferences and
strategies influence our modern consumption decisions, and he doesn't
pull any punches. Evolution matters—and those who understand its
impact on human behavior, whether corporations or consumers, will reap
the financial benefits.”
—Peter Todd, professor of cognitive science,
informatics, and psychology, Indiana University;
coauthor of Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart
“Eventually, marketing will be informed by evolutionary analyses, as
people who sell things strive to understand the design of the minds
they're selling to. Saad is among the first to shine a Darwinian light on
our consumerist proclivities. From advertising to zoophilia, in this well-
written book, packed with research findings and interesting examples,
The Consuming Instinct elegantly explains patterns of human
consumption…and much more….”
—Robert Kurzban, author of
Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite
“A wonderfully engaging and wide-ranging tour of human tastes,
aversions, and desires, conducted with verve and wit, all soundly
grounded in the sound principles of modern Darwinism.”
—Nigel Nicholson, professor of Organizational
Behavior
at London Business School; author of
Managing the Human Animal

Published 2011 by Prometheus Books
The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal
about Human Nature. Copyright © 2011 by Gad Saad. All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via
the Internet or a website without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of
brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Cover image © Media Bakery
Cover design by Nicole Sommer-Licht
Inquiries should be addressed to
Prometheus Books
59 John Glenn Drive
Amherst, New York 14228-2119
VOICE: 716-691-0133
FAX: [phone]
WWW.PROMETHEUSBOOKS.COM
15 14 13 12 11     5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Saad, Gad.
The consuming instinct : what juicy burgers, Ferraris, pornography, and gift giving reveal
about human nature / by Gad Saad.
        p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61614-429-6 (alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-61614-430-2 (e-book)
1. Consumer behavior. 2. Consumption (Economics)—Psychological aspects. 3. Consumers
—Psychology. 4. Evolutionary psychology. I. Title.
HF5415.32.S18 2011
339.4'7—dc22
2010052000
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

Acknowledgments
Foreword
Chapter 1 Consumers: Born and Made
Chapter 2 I Will Survive
Chapter 3 Let's Get It On
Chapter 4 We Are Family
Chapter 5 That's What Friends Are For
Chapter 6 Cultural Products: Fossils of the Human Mind
Chapter 7 Local versus 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
Notes
Index
irst and foremost I wish to thank Linda Greenspan Regan, my
Feditor at Prometheus Books, for her support throughout the
process but most importantly for believing in my book. She read
the first draft of my book with great care and always responded to
my queries in a timely and professional manner. In their able
capacities as copyeditor, proofreader, production manager, and
jacket designer, respectively, Dee Stiffler, Julia DeGraf, Catherine E.
Roberts-Abel, and Nicole Lecht were a pleasure to interact with. Barbara
Oakley and Steven Kotler provided me with valuable advice about many
aspects of the trade book market, whereas Eva Samartzidis and Albert
Saad Jr. offered their legal opinions regarding contractual matters. My
graduate students Eric Stenstrom and Zack Mendenhall assisted me in
procuring the photos along with the corresponding signed permissions
forms. Eric's organizational skills were instrumental in managing the
photo acquisitions process. I am thankful to all the photographers, and
especially to the DeVore family, for their generosity in allowing me to
use their photos for minimal fees (and in a few instances for free). The
parental leave that was granted to me by both the Quebec government
and by my university, coupled with the course remissions afforded by my
Concordia University Research Chair, were instrumental in freeing up
my time to write this book. My soul mate of more than ten years, Annie
Ortchanian; my daughter, Luna; and our majestic Belgian shepherds,
Amar and Samra; offered an endless stream of love and affection
throughout my journey. I am deeply honored that one of my intellectual
heroes, David M. Buss, agreed to write the foreword to this book.
Finally, as I explained in the preface to my 2007 book, The Evolutionary
Bases of Consumption, I was first exposed to the explanatory power of
evolutionary psychology in 1990, when I read the book Homicide by
Martin Daly and Margo Wilson. Earlier this year, Dr. Wilson, who served
as one of the endorsers of my 2007 book, passed away. Her intellectual
legacy will continue to influence many future generations of
evolutionary behavioral scientists.
volutionary psychology is beginning to penetrate all disciplines
Ethat deal with human behavior. This progression is logical. All
human behavior owes its existence to psychological mechanisms
in conjunction with environmental inputs to those mechanisms.
Psychological mechanisms, at some fundamental level, owe their
existence to evolution by natural and sexual selection.
Consequently, all fields that deal with human behavior will become more
deeply illuminated by understanding underlying evolved psychological
adaptations.
For a number of years, I envisioned marketing specifically and
business more generally to be ideal disciplines for evolutionary
psychological analysis. This integrative synthesis requires a scholar
thoroughly knowledgeable about both fields. Dr. Gad Saad is that
scholar. He brings a profound understanding of evolutionary psychology
together with deep knowledge of marketing and business to illuminate
the many and differing forms of consumer behavior. And he does so with
a lively and engaging writing style that keeps the reader fascinated from
start to finish.
In the process, The Consuming Instinct provides a profound
understanding of many otherwise perplexing phenomena: Why are
women so much more susceptible to eating disorders than men? Why do
men “discount the future” (i.e., value immediate rewards more intensely)
after seeing pictures of attractive women? Which underlying
psychological adaptations are responsible for successful ad campaigns
for men's products such as Axe? Why do women go to tanning salons,
even with the knowledge that they cause skin damage, and why do they
continue to wear high heels, despite the fact that they are so
uncomfortable? Why is online pornography consumed primarily by men,
yet women mainly fuel the multibillion-dollar romance novels industry?
I predict that The Consuming Instinct will become required reading at
business schools; indeed, it should be required reading for everyone. The
riches it offers are too great to ignore. Those who embrace the core
evolutionary principles of this book—in their work and in their lives—
will succeed. Those who don't will lose in the evolutionary marketplace
of products and ideas.
Nature versus nurture is dead.
—MATT RIDLEY1
Expel nature with a pitchfork, she'll be back again.
—HORACE2
INTRODUCTION

erhaps the most famous maxim in philosophy is René Descartes's
P“I think therefore I am.” I suspect that a more telling adage that
defines our daily existence is “I consume therefore I am.”
Humans possess a ravenous consummatory appetite. Most
individuals will typically make hundreds of consumption-related
decisions in any given day. Should I have breakfast or skip
straight to lunch? What am I going to wear today? Will it be casual attire
or a power suit? Should I put on my favorite perfume or try the new one
that an old acquaintance recently gave me? For dinner, will I have a
healthy and sensible tuna salad or head off to the deli for a thick pastrami
sandwich? Valentine's Day is rapidly approaching. Will it be the
customary flowers for my beloved, a day pass at a spa, or shall I finally
take a principled stance against this marketer-made holiday? My
nephew's birthday is coming up. What should I give him as a gift? I have
been asked to be the best man for one of my closest friends. I need to
organize a memorable bachelor party with all his friends to celebrate his
imminent marriage. What should I do? Are we taking a vacation during
spring break, and if so, where to and which book will I be bringing on
the trip? I need to update the playlist in my iPod Nano for the long flight
should we end up traveling. Should we postpone our vacation and
instead place the money in our child's college fund? On the other hand, I
just noticed that our glitzy neighbors recently bought a new Mercedes