The impact of functional and social value on the price of goods

According to hedonic pricing theory (HPT) market forces operate on individual characteristics of a good, and the price of a product is the aggregate of the price across those characteristics. The relationship between price and characteristics remains poorly understood because characteristic qualities are hard to quantify, people have varying levels of information about characteristics, and people have heterogeneous preferences over characteristics. By analyzing data from a large, market-driven virtual world we are able to test HPT, while largely avoiding these pitfalls. We find that a linear model with functional characteristics predicts the prices poorly, but a log-linear model performs quite well. Adding social characteristics to this log-linear model improves the predictions substantially. This work strongly supports HPT and demonstrates a “rational” calculus including social value.

Mating Effort Predicts Human Menstrual Cycle Frequency

The human menstrual cycle is characterized by substantial variability both within and between women. Here, we sought to account for such variability by examining whether human menstrual cycle frequency varies as a function of the projected fitness payoffs associated with investment in mating effort. We used structural equation modeling to test the prediction that women whose environmental conditions or life histories favor heavier investment in mating effort would have shorter, more regular cycles. Results supported our hypothesis, revealing that women who project more mating success and have faster life history strategies exhibit greater mating effort and shorter, more regular menstrual cycles. An alternative model that specified cycle frequency as a predictor of mating effort was a poor fit for the data, lending support for the hypothesized directionality of the path between these variables. Together, these results provide some of the first empirical evidence that the length and regularity of the human menstrual cycle may be calibrated to investment in mating effort.

The Dark Side of Luxury: Social Costs of Luxury Consumption

Extant research demonstrates that luxury goods are beneficial signals that bestow upon individuals social benefits that range from positive evaluations to compliance. In contrast to this perspective, the current work explores the idea that luxury goods can carry significant negative social costs for actors. Across four experiments, the social cost of luxury is examined. Although individuals who display luxury goods are ascribed higher status, they can pay a hefty tax when it comes to warmth. The social costs of luxury consumption appear to be driven by impression management concerns rather than envy. Consequently, whether the consumption of luxury goods yields positive or negative social consequences for an actor critically depends both on whether status or warmth is relevant for a decision and observers’ own lay beliefs about luxury consumption. Overall, this work reveals the more complex psychology of individuals’ interpretation and response to actors’ use of luxury goods.

Single-dose testosterone administration increases men's preference for status goods

In modern human cultures where social hierarchies are ubiquitous, people typically signal their hierarchical position through consumption of positional goods-goods that convey one's social position, such as luxury products. Building on animal research and early correlational human studies linking the sex steroid hormone testosterone with hierarchical social interactions, we investigate the influence of testosterone on men's preferences for positional goods. Using a placebo-controlled experiment (N = 243) to measure individuals' desire for status brands and products, we find that administering testosterone increases men's preference for status brands, compared to brands of similar perceived quality but lower perceived status. Furthermore, testosterone increases positive attitudes toward positional goods when they are described as status-enhancing, but not when they are described as power-enhancing or high in quality. Our results provide novel causal evidence for the biological roots of men's preferences for status, bridging decades of animal behavioral studies with contemporary consumer research.

Calcineurin is required for male sex pheromone biosynthesis and female acceptance

Lepidoptera sex pheromone biosynthesis is regulated by pheromone biosynthesis activating neuropeptide (PBAN). PBAN regulates not only female sex pheromone biosynthesis but also male sex pheromone biosynthesis. Previous research has confirmed that PBAN regulates sex pheromone biosynthesis using Ca²⁺ as a secondary messenger in all examined species to date. However, the downstream signal of Ca²⁺ has remained elusive. In the present study, calcineurin A (CNA), a downstream signal of Ca²⁺ , was discovered in Helicoverpa armigera male hairpencil and named HaCNA. Sequence analysis demonstrated that the open reading frame of HaCNA contains 1488 nucleotides encoding 495 amino acid residues. A homology search revealed that HaCNA shares a high amino acid identity with the CNA of other insects. Developmental and spatial expression analyses revealed that the mRNA levels of HaCNA peaked at 24 h after emergence and that HaCNA expression was ubiquitous in all examined tissues. Activity analysis revealed that PBAN activates HaCNA, and a Ca²⁺ inhibitor, Lacl₃ , attenuated the effect of PBAN by decreasing HaCNA activity. Pharmacological inhibitor and RNA interference-mediated knockdown assays revealed that both activity inhibition and decreased mRNA levels of HaCNA led to a significant decrease in the production of the male sex pheromone components [octadecanol and (Z)-11 hexadecanol)] and in the efficacy of female mating acceptance. Our results demonstrate that HaCNA acts as downstream signal of PBAN/Ca²⁺ and plays an important role in PBAN-induced male sex pheromone biosynthesis and female mating acceptance.

Transcriptome analysis of Helicoverpa armigera male hairpencils: Alcohol biosynthesis and requirement for mating success

Many female animals use different strategies to assess male quality to increase their own reproductive fitness. In moths, females usually use chemical signals (sex pheromones) to attract males from a distance. Once males approach a female, they release close range pheromones from hairpencils to facilitate female acceptance. However, detailed mechanisms involved in male sex pheromone biosynthesis and its action in promoting female acceptance have not yet been fully characterized. This study screened a series of candidate genes via a transcriptome analysis of the male hairpencil of Helicoverpa armigera. Using pharmacological inhibitor and RNAi-mediated knockdown assays, we demonstrated that Ca²⁺ and cyclic-AMP were involved in pheromone biosynthesis activating neuropeptide (PBAN)-induced male sex pheromone biosynthesis. The functional analysis of candidate enzymes involved in the male sex pheromone biosynthesis pathway demonstrated that a decreased mRNA levels of acetyl-CoA carboxylase, Δ11-desaturase, and fatty-acyl reductase 2 by RNAi-mediated knockdown led to a significant decrease in the production of fatty acyl alcohols and the efficacy of female acceptance. Our results demonstrated the important role of the fatty acyl alcohol biosynthetic pathway in a PBAN-induced male sex pheromone biosynthesis and the importance of hairpencil compounds in female mating acceptance.

Mating Goals Moderate Power's Effect on Conspicuous Consumption Among Women

This study aimed to use evolutionary psychology to explain conspicuous consumption's relationship with mating goals among women. We used experiments to show that power moderates conspicuous consumption's relationship with mating goals among women through an underlying relationship with women's social comparison tendencies. In Study 1, the participants read a passage describing a young woman wearing a coat made by a conspicuous brand (vs. an ordinary brand) who aimed to attract a desired man (vs. aiming to guard against potential competitors' attempts to disrupt her established intimate relationship). Participants in the conspicuous-brand condition were more confident that the young woman would succeed in mate attraction and guarding than participants in the ordinary-brand condition, suggesting the participants believed the conspicuous brands facilitated mate attraction and mate guarding more than ordinary brands. Study 2 manipulated the participants' power states and mating goals and measured participants' social comparison tendencies and conspicuous consumption index values. In the mate-guarding condition, high-power participants showed more inclination toward conspicuous consumption than low-power participants. In the mate-attraction condition, low-power participants showed a greater inclination toward conspicuous consumption than did high-power participants. Comparison orientation also mediated power's effect on conspicuous consumption inclination. The evolutionary psychological basis for the above findings is discussed, and suggestions are offered regarding product marketing.

The role of testosterone and estrogen in consumer behavior and social & economic decision making: A review

A contribution to a special issue on Hormones and Human Competition.This manuscript reviews the current literature on the actions of the steroid hormones testosterone and estradiol in shaping humans' behavior within two applied contexts, specifically consumer behavior and decision making (both social and economic). The theoretical argument put forth is that steroids shape these everyday behaviors and choices in service to being more competitive in achieving long-term goals related to resource acquisition, mating success, and social dominance. In addition, a discussion of the increased research focus on the role of steroids in other applied business domains will highlight the relevant applications of basic science discoveries in behavioral endocrinology.

Drinking High Amounts of Alcohol as a Short-Term Mating Strategy: The Impact of Short-Term Mating Motivations on Young Adults' Drinking Behavior

Previous research indicates that drinking large quantities of alcohol could function as a short-term mating strategy for young adults in mating situations. However, no study investigated whether this is actually the case. Therefore, in this article, the link between short-term mating motivations and drinking high amounts of alcohol is tested. First, a survey study ( N = 345) confirmed that young adults who engage in binge drinking are more short-term oriented in their mating strategy than young adults who never engage in binge drinking. Also, the more short-term-oriented young adults were in their mating strategy, the more often binge drinking behavior was conducted. In addition, an experimental study ( N = 229) empirically verified that short-term mating motivations increase young adults' drinking behavior, more so than long-term mating motivations. Results of the experiment clearly showed that young men and young women are triggered to drink more alcoholic beverages in a short-term mating situation compared to a long-term mating situation. Furthermore, the mating situation also affected young adults' perception of drinking behavior. Young adults in a short-term mating context perceived a higher amount of alcoholic beverages as heavy drinking compared to peers in a long-term mating context. These findings confirm that a high alcohol consumption functions as a short-term mating strategy for both young men and young women. Insights gained from this article might be of interest to institutions aimed at targeting youth alcohol (ab)use.

Female Cigarette and Alcohol Consumption as a Short-Term Mating Strategy

In developed countries, the traditional gender gap in youth smoking and drinking is closing. As tobacco and alcohol are more harmful to women than to men, this is an alarming trend. As men are generally more short-term oriented in their sexuality than women, and given that cigarette and alcohol use are still considered masculine behaviors, we explored if female smoking and drinking can function as a short-term mating strategy. By means of a between-subjects experiment ( N = 218), men’s perceptions of female smoking and drinking were studied. The experiment showed that young men perceive women who use cigarettes and alcohol as being more sexually unrestricted. Furthermore, tobacco and (especially) alcohol use brought some short-term attractiveness benefits to women. In short-term mating contexts, drinking enhanced women’s attractiveness, whereas occasional smoking was found equally desirable as not smoking. However, in long-term mating contexts, frequent drinking and all smoking behavior harmed women’s desirability. A follow-up study ( N = 202) confirmed men’s perceptions, showing that female users of tobacco and alcohol are indeed more short-term oriented in their sexuality. Overall, results indicate that female smoking and drinking can operate as a short-term mating strategy.

What If the Rival Drives a Porsche?

Previous research found that men conspicuously consume luxury products to attract a mate and to signal their mate value. However, these studies have yet neglected to investigate the function of male conspicuous consumption in same-sex competition. Given that intersexual selection and intrasexual selection are closely related processes, it stands to reason that a further function of male conspicuous consumption could be to impress and deter same-sex rivals. An 2 (intrasexual competition context vs. control) × 2 (conspicuous luxury vs. inconspicuous nonluxury) between-subjects experimental study conducted with an Amazon Mechanical Turk sample (N = 160) revealed that men reported both higher liking of and an intent to purchase a conspicuous luxury car compared to an inconspicuous nonluxury car due to increased feelings of social status. This effect was stronger in the intrasexual competition than in the control context. An additional perception study using a single-factor between-subjects design (conspicuous luxury vs. inconspicuous nonluxury car) among German men (N = 405) indicated that male participants rated a man who displayed a conspicuous luxury car more as a rival and mate poacher and less as a friend. They further perceived him to be superior on various mate value characteristics (i.e., attractiveness, intelligence, ambition, and status) and rated him as more oriented toward short-term mating. In sum, our findings add to previous research in the field of evolutionary consumer psychology by suggesting that male conspicuous consumption of luxuries may also serve a function in male–male competition.

Sexually Selected Sex Differences in Competitiveness Explain Sex Differences in Changes in Drinking Game Participation

Drinking games are a risk factor for behavioral and health problems among university students. Previous cross-sectional research by Hone, Carter, and McCullough (2013) replicated well-established sex differences in drinking game behaviors (i.e., that men are more active drinking game participants than are women) and university drinking problems more generally. Hone et al. (2013) also found that these male-specific behavioral patterns are attributable in part to the fact that men's generally unrestricted sexual strategies, plus their social competitiveness, motivate them to participate in drinking games to display their fortitude and compete with same-sex rivals. Here, the authors conducted a study to evaluate with greater causal rigor whether sex differences in sexual restrictedness and social competitiveness—and sex differences in motivations for participating in drinking games in particular—are partially responsible for the sex differences in university students' drinking game behaviors and drinking problems. Sex differences in changes in frequency of drinking game participation were partially mediated by competitive motivations for participating in drinking games and by the effects of social competitiveness on competitive drinking game motivation. These findings lend additional support to the proposition that participation in drinking games is motivated in part by their suitability as a venue for sexual competition in university students' day-to-day lives.

Heterosexual Rejection and Mate Choice: A Sociometer Perspective

Previous studies about the effects of social rejection on individuals' social behaviors have produced mixed results and tend to study mating behaviors from a static point of view. However, mate selection in essence is a dynamic process, and therefore sociometer theory opens up a new perspective for studying mating and its underlying practices. Based on this theory and using self-perceived mate value in the relationship between heterosexual rejection and mate choice as a mediating role, this current study examined the effects of heterosexual rejection on mate choice in two experiments. Results showed that heterosexual rejection significantly reduced self-perceived mate value, expectation, and behavioral tendencies, while heterosexual acceptance indistinctively increased these measures. Self-perceived mate value did not serve as a mediator in the relationship between heterosexual rejection and mate expectation, but it mediated the relationship between heterosexual rejection and mating behavior tendencies toward potential objects. Moreover, individuals evaded both rejection and irrelevant people when suffering from rejection.

Out of Lust or Jealousy: The Effects of Mate-Related Motives on Study-Time Allocation to Faces Varying in Attractiveness

Although a growing number of empirical studies have revealed that activating mate-related motives might exert a specific set of consequences for human cognition and behaviors, such as attention and memory, little is known about whether mate-related motives affect self-regulated learning. The present study examined the effects of mate-related motives (mate-search and mate-guarding) on study-time allocation to faces varying in attractiveness. In two experiments, participants in mate-related priming conditions (Experiment 1: mate-search; Experiment 2: mate-guarding) or control conditions studied 20 female faces (10 highly attractive, 10 less attractive) during a self-paced study task, and then were given a yes/no face recognition task. The finding of Experiment 1 showed that activating a mate-search motive led the male participants to allocate more time to highly attractive female faces (i.e., perceived potential mates) than to less attractive ones. In Experiment 2, female participants in the mate-guarding priming condition spent more time studying highly attractive female faces (i.e., perceived potential rivals) than less attractive ones, compared to participants in the control condition. These findings illustrate the highly specific consequences of mate-related motives on study-time allocation, and highlight the value of exploring human cognition and motivation within evolutionary and self-regulated learning frameworks.

Creativity and Aggression as Ornament and Armament: Intersexual and Intrasexual Selection on Men's Mating Behaviors

In three studies, we tested the hypothesis that men respond to intersexual and intrasexual selection by facultatively choosing between weapon-like and ornament-like behaviors. In the first two studies, we manipulated intersexual and intrasexual selection by having male participants take part in a simulated dating game (Study 1) or imagine having a date (Study 2). In both studies, participants were told either that the target female would choose her date (intersexual) or that male suitors would nominate one another (intrasexual). Under the intersexual selection condition, men demonstrated increased creativity levels and decreased aggression levels, whereas the opposite pattern was observed under the intrasexual selection condition. Study 3 showed that individual differences in creativity and aggression as personality traits similarly predicted intrasexual and intersexual mating strategies, respectively. These extend existing evolutionary mating research by specifying the mechanism of intrasexual or intersexual selection in shaping men's weapon-like or ornament-like situational response and personality development.

Cognitive evolutionary therapy for depression: a case study

KEY CLINICAL MESSAGE

We present an evolutionary-driven cognitive-behavioral intervention for a moderately depressed patient. Standard cognitive and behavioral therapy techniques focused on the patient's perfectionistic and self-downing beliefs, while novel, evolutionary-informed techniques were used to guide behavioral activation and conceptualize secondary emotional problems related to anger. The treatment reduced depressive symptomatology and increased evolutionary fitness.

The Rival Wears Prada: Luxury Consumption as a Female Competition Strategy

Previous studies on luxury consumption demonstrated that men spend large sums of money on luxury brands to signal their mate value to women and, thus, increase their reproductive success. Although women also spend copious amounts of money on luxuries, research focusing on women's motives for luxury consumption is rather scarce. Relying on costly signaling and intrasexual competition theory, the goal of the current study was to test whether female intrasexual competition in a mate attraction context triggers women's spending on luxuries. The results of the first experiment reveal that an intrasexual competition context enhances women's preferences for attractiveness enhancing, but not for non-attractiveness related luxuries such as a smartphone. This finding indicates that women may use luxury consumption as a self-promotion strategy during within-sex competitions, as these luxuries improve their advantages against same-sex rivals for mates. A follow-up study shows that compared to women who do not consume luxuries, women who do so are perceived as more attractive, flirty, young, ambitious, sexy, and less loyal, mature and smart by other women. These results suggest that luxury consumption may provide information about a women's willingness to engage in sex, as well as her views about other women, and consequently, her success in intrasexual competitions.

Beyond the negative: political attitudes and ideologies strategically manage opportunities, too

Hibbing et al. use evolutionarily derived logic to suggest that political attitudes are related to responses to negative features of the environment. We suggest that the authors focus too narrowly on the negative and contend, instead, that a more comprehensive evolutionary approach focusing on people's responses to threats and opportunities will better account for variation in political attitudes.

Mating motives and concerns about being misidentified as gay or lesbian: implications for the avoidance and derogation of sexual minorities

Recent research has demonstrated that concerns about being misidentified as gay or lesbian lead to the avoidance of gay men and lesbians. Because being misidentified as gay/lesbian can result in the loss of heterosexual people's mating opportunities, we predicted that the activation of mating motives would heighten concerns among some heterosexuals about being misidentified as gay/lesbian. To combat such misidentification, we argued that heterosexuals would express antipathy toward and avoid contact with gay/lesbian people. Consistent with predictions, the activation of mating motives led heterosexuals who were generally concerned about misclassification as gay/lesbian to denigrate (Study 1) and avoid (Study 2) gay/lesbian people. Activating mating motives increased heterosexual participants' concerns about being misclassified, which in turn heightened interest in avoiding gay/lesbian people (Study 3). These findings indicate that, although the motivation to find a romantic partner can have positive implications, it can contribute to negative responses to gay/lesbian people.

Grief Functions as an Honest Indicator of Commitment

Grief is a puzzling phenomenon. It is often costly and prolonged, potentially increasing mortality rates, drug abuse, withdrawal from social life, and susceptibility to illness. These costs cannot be repaid by the deceased and therefore might appear wasted. In the following article, we propose a possible solution. Using the principles of social selection theory, we argue that an important selective pressure behind the human grief response was the social decisions of other humans. We combine this with insights from signaling theory, noting that grief shares many properties with other hard-to-fake social signals. We therefore contend that grief was shaped by selective forces to function as a hard-to-fake signal of (a) a person’s propensity to form strong, non-utilitarian bonds and (b) a person’s current level of commitment to a group or cause. This theory explains many of the costly symptoms of grief and provides a progressive framework for future research.

Judgments of dominance from the face track physical strength

It is commonly assumed that judgments of dominance from faces partly rely on implicit judgments of bodily strength. In two studies, we demonstrate such a relation for both computer-generated and natural photos of male faces. We find support when aggregating data across participants, when analyzing with hierarchical models, and also when strength and dominance are judged by different raters. Moreover, we identify common predictors that underlie perceptions of both strength and dominance: brow height, eye length, chin length, and the widths of the nose and mouth.

Saving can save from death anxiety: mortality salience and financial decision-making

Four studies tested the idea that saving money can buffer death anxiety and constitute a more effective buffer than spending money. Saving can relieve future-related anxiety and provide people with a sense of control over their fate, thereby rendering death thoughts less threatening. Study 1 found that participants primed with both saving and spending reported lower death fear than controls. Saving primes, however, were associated with significantly lower death fear than spending primes. Study 2 demonstrated that mortality primes increase the attractiveness of more frugal behaviors in save-or-spend dilemmas. Studies 3 and 4 found, in two different cultures (Polish and American), that the activation of death thoughts prompts people to allocate money to saving as opposed to spending. Overall, these studies provided evidence that saving protects from existential anxiety, and probably more so than spending.

Drinking Games as a Venue for Sexual Competition

Based on sexual selection theory, we hypothesized that sex differences in mating effort and social competitiveness—and subsequent sex differences in sexual and competitive motivations for participating in drinking games—are responsible for the well-documented sex differences in college students' drinking game behaviors. Participants in a cross-sectional study were 351 women and 336 men aged 17 to 26. In a mediation model, we tested sex differences in mating effort, social competitiveness, sexual and competitive motivations for participating in drinking games, drinking game behaviors, and alcohol-related problems. Men participated in drinking games more frequently, consumed more alcohol while participating in drinking games, and experienced more problems associated with drinking. These sex differences appeared to be partially mediated by mating effort, social competitiveness, and sexual and competitive motivations for participating in drinking games. Drinking games are a major venue in which college students engage in heavy episodic drinking, which is a risk factor for college students' behavioral and health problems. Thus, the functional perspective we used to analyze them here may help to inform public health and university interventions and enable better identification of at-risk students.

What motivates the sexual double standard? More support for male versus female control theory

The present research uniquely compared male control theory (MCT) versus female control theory (FCT) to illuminate motives for the sexual double standard (SDS), whereby men gain status from engaging in casual sex or having many sexual partners, but women are stigmatized for it. Consistent with MCT, men were more likely than women to endorse the SDS and to give sexual advice in ways that reinforce it-gender differences that were mediated by hostile sexism (HS) and endorsing the SDS, respectively. The data did not support FCT's argument that women are motivated by sexual economics to restrict female sexuality (Baumeister & Twenge, 2002). Both genders discouraged women from having casual sex to protect women from social stigma and rape myths that justify violence against sexual women. In concert, the findings support MCT more than FCT and suggest that sexism, stigma, and rape myths are primary obstacles to sexual equality.

Wealth and the Inflated Self

Americans may be more narcissistic now than ever, but narcissism is not evenly distributed across social strata. Five studies demonstrated that higher social class is associated with increased entitlement and narcissism. Upper-class individuals reported greater psychological entitlement (Studies 1a, 1b, and 2) and narcissistic personality tendencies (Study 2), and they were more likely to behave in a narcissistic fashion by opting to look at themselves in a mirror (Study 3). Finally, inducing egalitarian values in upper-class participants decreased their narcissism to a level on par with their lower-class peers (Study 4). These findings offer novel evidence regarding the influence of social class on the self and highlight the importance of social stratification to understanding basic psychological processes.

If you've got it, flaunt it: humans flaunt attractive partners to enhance their status and desirability

Mating decisions are influenced by conspecifics’ mate choices in many species including humans. Recent research has shown that women are more attracted to men with attractive putative partners than those with less attractive partners. We integrate these findings with traditional accounts of social signaling and test five hypotheses derived from it. In our study, 64 men and 75 women were paired with attractive and unattractive opposite-sex putative partners and asked whether they would prefer to give surveys to peers or to older adults. Consistent with predictions, both men and women wanted to show off (flaunt) attractive partners by administering surveys to peers and both men and women wanted to hide (conceal) unattractive partners from peers by administering surveys to older adults. These decisions were mediated by how participants expected others to evaluate their status and desirability when they administered the surveys, consistent with partners serving a social signaling function in humans.

People With Dark Personalities Tend to Create a Physically Attractive Veneer

Which personality traits are associated with physical attractiveness? Recent findings suggest that people high in some dark personality traits, such as narcissism and psychopathy, can be physically attractive. But what makes them attractive? Studies have confounded the more enduring qualities that impact attractiveness (i.e., unadorned attractiveness) and the effects of easily manipulated qualities such as clothing (i.e., effective adornment). In this multimethod study, we disentangle these components of attractiveness, collect self-reports and peer reports of eight major personality traits, and reveal the personality profile of people who adorn themselves effectively. Consistent with findings that dark personalities actively create positive first impressions, we found that the composite of the Dark Triad—Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy—correlates with effective adornment. This effect was also evident for psychopathy measured alone. This study provides the first experimental evidence that dark personalities construct appearances that act as social lures—possibly facilitating their cunning social strategies.