EVOLUTIONARY INFLUENCES ON MODERN MARKETING AND

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR.
Researches have studied marketing, advertising and consumer behavior for a
long time now. Here, we are discussing how our ancestral roots can provide
insights into the underlying motives driving our purchase. Our goal here is to
show how an evolutionary perspective on motivation relates to consumer
behavior. These helps marketers and advertisers to meet the evolutionary needs
of consumers and help the consumer to make informed decisions.
Distinguishing proximate and ultimate levels of explanation
When preparing marketing strategies, marketers most of the time take
proximate levels of explanations for human behavior. But there are some
underlying evolutionary (ultimate) reasons that explain why humans act the way
they do. For example, when asking why children prefer doughnuts to spinach,
one answer is that doughnuts taste better. But taking a look at the underlying
evolutionary reason we find that humans inherited a preference for fatty and
sweet foods which provided our ancestors with much needed calories in a food
scarce environment. Similarly, it is misguided to ask if a man bought an
expensive sports car because it makes him feel good (a proximate reason) or
because it enhances his reproductive opportunities (an ultimate reason). Both
explanations are correct, each explaining the same behavior at a different level
of analysis. The important point is that neglecting the ultimate reasons for
behavior can limit or hinder marketing strategies.
The Mind Evolved To Solve Adaptive Challenges

Many organisms including humans have evolved motivations that helps in

solving the recurring adaptive challenges like making friends, gaining status,
taking care of offspring. Individuals in the past who did not solve a set of
recurring problems did not pass their genes onto us.
 Blank slate approach(outdated) suggests that, there is no human nature
where preferences and desires solely depend on exposure to culture and
they could be easily persuaded by marketers to behave in one way or the
other.
 Evolutionary perspective suggests that there is a human nature and they
have a set of evolved motives. The decisions, preferences and desires
cannot be easily influenced and marketers can be more effective in
 changing the behavior of people through strategic communication that
considers the evolutionary motive behind what we buy.
Social Motives
 Remarkable commonality in the ultimate purposes of human goals.
 At the most basic level, we need nourishment and shelter.
 Solutions of social problems have led to important implications for
modern consumer behavior.
 The frameworks suggested converge on a core set of ultimate social
motives.
 Each individual motive can have strong effects on our behavior.
Romantic partner attraction
 Attraction towards a partner is not merely about sex but about
maximizing reproduction.
 Choosing potential mates and being chosen by them involves a lot of
challenges and opportunities.
 Factors such as status, resources, physical attractiveness, kindness and
intelligence play a major role.
 The motive to attract a mate result in conveyance of many types of
behaviour to be more appealing as mates.
 Men that wish to attract mates, show attributes like creative thinking,
heroic helping, gift giving, etc. which results in influencing their financial
decisions.
 In case of women, internal factors such as hormonal fluctuations due to
their ovulatory cycle makes them more chronically active in searching for
a mate during the peak fertility phase.
Romantic partner retention
 Issues involved in attracting mates are qualitatively different than
maintaining partnerships.
 A mate attraction motive is linked to feelings of lust where as that of
mate retention is linked to feelings of romance and jealousy.
 A mate retention motive includes both maintenance of current
relationship and managing potential romantic competitors.
 Men’s mate retention motives as purchase of gifts increases when their
partner is ovulating indicating that men may not be fully aware of the
reasons of these purchases.
Protecting Oneself From Physical Harm
 Self-Protection is imperative from evolutionary perspective. The mind is
designed to be hyper sensitive to threats. At least everyone is motivated to
protect themselves from physical harm. This makes one sensitive to the changes
occurring around him. A motive for self-protection has been shown to affect a
variety of behaviors including consumer behavior.
Example: It makes people take less risk in making financial decisions and more
risk averse.
Self-protection motive also shows “strength in number response” leading people
to band together with several others.
Example: Advertising messages appealing to behavior of masses “This product
has been purchased by a million people” is more persuasive when motive is
active.
Forming Friendships

The motivation to have an alliance with a non-kin, i.e., friendship, is highly

valuable as it provides support, safety from dangers, and the power to exert
control. Friendships are reciprocal in nature and motive driven, where initially
favours are exchanged equally, and over time it becomes more communal and
trusting.
This affiliation motive influences the behaviour of individuals by creating a
psychological connection with others. This friendship motive becomes stronger
when social relationships are threatened, promoting individuals to reinforce
their existing friendship. This affiliative motive leads to people spending more
money on relationship affirming products which the buyer may not like but
the friend likes.

Gaining Status

Every individual desires power and prestige, the motivation to gain social status
is universally present but in various forms. This desire is associated with
climbing the ladder of hierarchy and maintaining the position as well; this status
can be attained either by dominance or prestige.
A threat to social status, leads to conservative behaviour patterns where group
goals are sacrificed for personal goals.
Status motive is also directly related to the acquisition of products that signal
elevated status and power. For e.g, status seeking individuals will pay more
for luxury goods.
Kin Care
Kinship care is commonly defined as "the full-time care, nurturing, and
protection of a child by relatives, members of their Tribe or clan, godparents,
stepparents, or other adults who have a family relationship to a child." The
relationship should be respected on the basis of the family's cultural values and
emotional ties. There are many benefits to placing children with relatives or
other kinship caregivers, such as increased stability and safety as well as the
ability to maintain family connections and cultural traditions.
 It is not the same as desire to have children.
 It has evolved not only to help one’s offspring but also to help starving
children, helpless strangers or even taking care of animals.
Misconceptions
 Research says that the family-owned business tends to operate effectively
and perform better, but that is always not the scenario, we can see the
downside of nepotism here as well which can worsen performance in
generations to come. Despite the downsides the genetic relatedness is
often given much priority pertaining to evolutionary perspective.