Colloquia Archive
The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption
April 10, 2007
Hosts: Karl MacDorman and Peter Todd
AbstractGad Saad’s book and lecture The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption applies Darwinian principles to understand our consumption patterns and the products of popular culture. This is a seminal study of the adaptations behind perception, though, emotion, and behavior. Analysis presented indicates how we come to make selections such as choosing a mate, the foods we eat, and the gifts that we offer. It also highlights how pathological gambling, compulsive buying, porno-graphic addiction, and eating disorders possess a Darwinian etiology.
The lecture maps consumption phenomena onto survival, reproduction, kin selec-tion, and reciprocal altruism. Prof. Saad suggests that media and advertising con-tents exist in their particular forms because they are a reflection of our evolved na-ture—negating the notion that they exist through the reverse causal link, as pro-posed by social constructivists. The link between evolutionary theory and con-sumption behaviors is detailed via an examination of
- appearance-enhancing products and services;
- financial and physical risk-taking;
- use of sexual imagery and the depictions of women in advertising; and
- television, movies, songs, music videos, literature, religion, and art.
Dr. Gad Saad is an associate professor of marketing at the John Molson School of Business, Concordia University. He received the Faculty's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2000. His research interests lie in the application of evolutionary theory across a wide range of behavioral disciplines. He holds a Ph.D. (Marketing; Minors in Cognitive Studies and Statistics), an M.S. from Cornell University, an M.B.A. (Marketing; Mini-Thesis: Operations Research), and a B.Sc. (Mathematics and Computer Science), both from McGill University.
A one-hour video podcast of Gad Saad's presentation is available in QuickTime format.
