Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior {SCAN}

Geoffrey Franklin Miller

At once a pioneering study of evolution and an accessible and lively read, The Mating Mind offers the most convincing—and radical—explanation to date for how and why the human mind evolved. Traditionally, evolutionary theory has explained intelligence as merely a by-product of surplus brain size. But psychologist Geoffrey Miller argues that it actively evolved, like the peacock's tail, for courtship and mating, and thereby shaped human nature.Certain traits are attractive because they indicate the overall fitness of a potential mate. Miller maintains that both human sexes have evolved many significant ways of displaying fitness via expressions of creative intelligence such as storytelling, poetry, art, music, sports, dance, humor, kindness, and leadership. In support of this provocative thesis, he has gathered evidence from psychology, economics, history, pop culture, and Darwin's theory of sexual selection to present an utterly original synthesis of research. Leer más…

Matt Ridley

Referring to Lewis Carroll's Red Queen from Through the Looking-Glass , a character who has to keep running to stay in the same place, Matt Ridley demonstrates why sex is humanity's best strategy for outwitting its constantly mutating internal predators. The Red Queen answers dozens of other riddles of human nature and culture — including why men propose marriage, the method behind our maddening notions of beauty, and the disquieting fact that a woman is more likely to conceive a child by an adulterous lover than by her husband. Brilliantly written, The Red Queen offers an extraordinary new way of interpreting the human condition and how it has evolved. Booknews The author, a science journalist, draws on a wide range of sources (which he notes and annotates) to present some biological (unromantic) reasons behind seduction and sexism, beauty and polygamy, attraction and adultery. The title refers to Lewis Carroll's character in Through the Looking Glass who told Alice "we must run as fast as we can just to stay in the same place," her comment being used metaphorically for evolution. For the lay audience. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Leer más…

Edited By Curtis P. Haugtvedt, Karen A. Machleit, Richard F.yalch

__Online Consumer Psychology__ addresses many of the issues created by the Internet and goes beyond the topic of advertising and the Web to include topics such as customization, site design, word of mouth processes, and the study of consumer decision making while online. The theories and research methods help provide greater insight into the processes underlying consumer behavior in online environments. Broken into six sections, this book: * focuses on community and looks at the Internet's ability to bring like-minded individuals from around the world into one forum; * examines issues related to advertising, specifically click-through rates and advertising content placed within gaming online and wireless networks; * provides readers with reasons why consumers customize products and the benefits of customization; * discusses the psychological effects of site design; * asks the question of whether the Internet empowers consumers to make better decisions; and * discusses research tools that can be used online. </UL Leer más…

Matin A. Khan

The book Consumer Behaviour and Advertising Management has been written for the management students of Indian institutions. It clearly explains the fundamentals of the subject and is designed to give an insight to the students with Indian examples. The book is written in simple language so that it can be understood by the students and teachers. Almost all the topics on consumer behaviour and advertising have been covered in this book. The entire syllabi of the I.E.T. has been covered and the book will be useful for the students. All the factors effecting consumer behaviour and some cases have been dealt in the book. In advertising, besides the promotional tools, five 5 Ms of advertising, ethical and social issues have also been dealt in a comprehensive manner. Both the sections of the book are supplemented with brief examples of cases for the understanding of the students. Leer más…

Max Sutherland; Alice K Sylvester

Advertising is an established and ever-present force and yet just how it works continues to be something of a mystery. From an industry insider, this fully-updated guide unveils the secrets of leading a successful campaign over a wide range of media, including the web. Drawing on many well-known international ads as examples, it reveals the workings of the mind of the consumer and explains the reasons for the successes and failures of various advertising campaigns. More than just a how-to book of tricks, this is a look at the psychological and logistical factors that make advertisements work that is ideal for advertising agents, marketers, and students of advertising and consumer behavior. Leer más…

Editor, Michaela Wanke

The Social Psychology of Consumer Behavior brings together the most promising and theoretically fruitful research developments by internationally renowned scholars, whose work is at the cutting edge of research. Experts from both fields – social psychology and consumer behavior – provide an informed, up-to-date overview, from an original integrative perspective. The aim of this volume is two-fold. On the one hand, the application of social psychology to consumer behavior is meant to broaden the horizon of social psychologists. On the other hand, students and researchers of consumer behavior will be offered an advanced account of relevant theories tailored to their interests. While the range of topics is rather broad – including the construal of judgments and decisions, affective and cognitive feelings, social and media influences, and goals and self-regulation – each chapter is focused on one specific theoretical or methodological perspective and thereby gives a comprehensive and penetrative account of the relevant issues and the respective research. The volume provides an invaluable resource to students, researchers, and instructors in social psychology, consumer psychology, consumer behavior, and marketing. Leer más…

Pamela N. Danziger

Danziger, who owns a marketing research and consulting company, dismisses people who worry that too much personal spending imperils individual financial security and crowds out public spending; she even cites the World Trade Center attacks to argue that overshopping is a patriotic duty. Right-thinking Americans, according to the author, encourage people to buy things they don't need by focusing on the shopping and ownership experience rather than on the good or service itself. This 'sell the sizzle, not the steak' advice is not original, but this book elaborates on it by defining five types of consumers using 14 different 'justifiers' to make unnecessary purchases; some of these are illustrated by a company that exploits the niche. The bulk of the book consists of statistical summaries of 37 different product areas. The sales approach is one-dimensional and described only in sketches, though the marketing text covers the theoretical ideas with more depth and balance. The book appears to be aimed at marketing consultants who need to brainstorm ideas in different product categories, and for this audience the author provides the enthusiasm to inspire proposals and enough data for the first draft. Leer más…

Randy Thornhill And Steven W. Gangestad

Research conducted in the last fifteen years has placed in question many of the traditional conclusions scholars have formed about human female sexuality. Though conventional wisdom asserts that women's estrus has been evolutionarily lost, Randy Thornhill and Steven W. Gangestad assert that it is present, though concealed. Women, they propose, therefore exhibit two sexualities each ovulatory cycle-estrus and sexuality outside of the estrous phase, extended sexuality-that possess distinct functions. Synthesizing research in behavioral evolution and comparative biology, the authors provide a new theoretical framework for understanding the evolution of human female sexuality, one that is rooted in female sexuality and phylogeny across all vertebrate animals. Leer más…

Kevin N. Laland And Gillian R. Brown

I recommend this book not just to human behavior researchers but also to any curious science reader. Leer más…

Edited By Chantal Ammi

Globalization is a leading force for industry worldwide, especially the new technology sector. This presents both problems and opportunities in the emergence of a new type of consumer and the effects of globalization on industry in terms of culture, economics, marketing, and social issues at every scale from local to global. The main aim of the book is to enhance the readerвЂTMs knowledge – especially from a multidisciplinary perspective rather than from an individual functional perspective – of international consumer behaviour. It also explores the role of globalization in the evolving world of the new technology sector and provides an overview of the development of international consumer behavior from historical, geographical and social perspectives, while focusing on new technology products and services. Professionals, students and researchers working in the fields of new technologies and information and communication technologies (ICT) as well as specialists of marketing and management are the target audience for this book.В At the same time, the book will be pitched at a level so as to also appeal to a more general readership interested in globalization. Leer más…

Glenn Geher, Geoffrey Miller (Editors)

"Human intelligence is sexually attractive, and strongly predicts the success of sexual relationships, but the behavioral sciences have usually ignored the interface between intelligence and mating. This is the first serious scholarly effort to explore that interface, by examining both universal and individual differences in human mating intelligence. Contributors include some of the most prominent evolutionary psychologists and promising new researchers in human intelligence, social psychology, intimate relationships, and sexuality. David Buss' foreword and the opening chapter explore what 'mating intelligence' means, and why it is central to human cognition and sexuality. The book's six sections then examine (1) our mating mechanisms -- universal emotional and cognitive adaptations for mating intelligently -- that guide mate search, mate choice, and courtship; (2) how mating intelligence strategically guides our choice of mating tactics and partners given different relationship goals, personality traits, forms of deception, and the existence of children; (3) the genetic and psychiatric causes of individual differences in mating intelligence; (4) how we use mental fitness indicators -- forms of human intelligence such as creativity, humor, and emotional intelligence -- to attract and retain sexual partners; (5) the ecological and social contexts of mating intelligence; (6) integrative models of mating intelligence that can guide future research. Mating Intelligence is... Leer más…

Leonard Shlain

Leonard Shlain From the best selling author of __Art and Physics__ and __The Alphabet Versus the Goddess__ comes a provocative new book that will change our views of human sexuality and evolution. According to Leonard Shlain there is no clear and compelling explanation for the sudden emergence of glib, big-brained __Homo sapiens__ 150,000 years ago. In his latest book, he proposes an original thesis that variations in female sexuality changed the course of human evolution. Due to the narrowness of her bipedal pelvis and the increasing size of her infant's head, the human female began to experience high childbirth death rates. Natural selection adapted her to this environmental stress by drastically reconfiguring her hormonal cycles. Her estrus with its external signal that she was ovulating disappeared as her menses became the most florid of any mammal and it mysteriously entrained with the periodicity of the moon. These interlocking adaptations led the first women to grasp the concept of a month and make the connection between sex and pregnancy. Upon learning the immense secret of time, early females became empowered to refuse sex when they were ovulating. The first males faced women who had a mind of their own. Men used the knowledge of the future acquired from women to become the planet's most fearsome predator. But soon, a man discovered that he was mortal and, then, when he belatedly understood the function of sex, he grasped that he could have an heir. These... Leer más…

Alan F. Dixson

Comparative analyses of the anatomy, reproductive physiology, and behaviour of extant primates and other mammals can offer important insights into the origins of human sexual behaviour, allowing us to reconstruct the origins of human mating systems, the evolution of sexual attractiveness, patterns of mate choice, and copulatory behaviour. Sexual Selection and the Origins of Human Mating Systems provides a modern synthesis of research on the evolution of human mating systems, bringing together work on reproductive physiology, behavioural biology, anthropology, primatology, palaeontology, evolutionary psychology, and sexological research. The approach taken is genuinely cross-disciplinary in scope, and provides a fascinating account of the effects of sexual selection upon human evolution in the light of the latest advances in the field. Leer más…

Alfred C Kinsey, Institute For Sex Research, Wardell B Pomeroy, Paul H Gebhard

"Sexual Behavior in the Human Female" was originally published in 1953, five years after the male volume. The material presented in this book was derived from personal interviews with nearly 6,000 women; from studies in sexual anatomy, physiology, psychology, and endocrinology. The book presents data on the incidence and frequency with which women participate in various types of sexual activity. The authors show how such factors as age, decade of birth, and religious adherence are reflected in patterns of sexual behavior. Some measure of the social significance of the various types of sexual behavior is provided. The authors make comparisons of female and male sexual activities, and investigate the factors which account for the similarities and differences between female and male patterns of behavior. Leer más…

Gad Saad, David M. Buss

In this highly informative and entertaining book, the founder of the vibrant new field of evolutionary consumption illuminates the relevance of our biological heritage to our daily lives as consumers. While culture is important, the author shows that innate evolutionary forces deeply influence the foods we eat, the gifts we offer, the cosmetics and clothing styles we choose to make ourselves more attractive to potential mates, and even the cultural products that stimulate our imaginations (such as art, music, and religion). The book demonstrates that most acts of consumption can be mapped onto four key Darwinian drives-namely, survival (we prefer foods high in calories); reproduction (we use products as sexual signals); kin selection (we naturally exchange gifts with family members); and reciprocal altruism (we enjoy offering gifts to close friends). The author further highlights the analogous behaviors that exist between human consumers and a wide range of animals.For anyone interested in the biological basis of human behavior or simply in what makes consumers tick-marketing professionals, advertisers, psychology mavens, and consumers themselves-this is a fascinating read. Editorial Reviews Review "What's your guilty pleasure? Junk food? Fast cars? Champagne? To shop until you drop? What makes consumers tick? Psychologist Gad Saad writes of the innate needs, preferences, and drives that spur many of our most treasured appetites and behaviors—all soft-wired into the human... Leer más…

Patricia Mink Rath, Marketing Education Consultant--Winnetka, Il, Stefani Bay, The Illinois Institute Of Art--Chicago, Richard Petrizzi, The Illinois Institute Of Art--Chicago, Penny Gill, Pwg Communications Inc., White Plains, Ny

Consumer behavior affects the fashion industry-in design, production, merchandising and promotion at all levels-as much as it affects retailing. The Second Edition of Why of the Buy: Consumer Behavior and Fashion Marketing continues to address how psychology, sociology, and culture all influence the how, what, when, where, and why of the buy. The unifying element of this text is its presentation of current knowledge of consumer behavior applied to the fields of fashion and design in an enthusiastic and relevant way that will attract and engage students. New to this Edition -New What Do I Need to Know About ...? feature lists the objectives of each chapter, providing a roadmap for study - New Chapter 11, Social Media and the Fashion Consumer, explores how the relationship between marketers, retailers, and consumers is aided by social media and the internet - New discussion of Omnichannel retailing in Ch. 13 Leer más…