Applications of Evolutionary Psychology in Marketing

Evolutionary psychology is an emerging paradigm in psychological science. The current article introduces this framework to marketing scholars and presents evidence for its increasing acceptance within the social science community. As a result, a case is made for the application of evolutionary psychology to marketing, and especially consumer behavior. Application of the evolutionary framework in studying gender-related consumption behavior is illustrated by comparing the evolutionary predictions with results obtained from previous studies, by supporting these predictions with market-level consumption data, and by proposing new hypotheses based on this framework. Also discussed are the potential applications of evolutionary psychology to other consumption-related phenomena like evaluation of endorser attractiveness in advertising, biologically driven consumption choices among women, consumer-experienced emotions in service encounters, and consumption choices as inclusive fitness maximization rather than utility maximization. 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Most of the issues that vex humanity daily . . . cannot be solved without integrating knowledge from the natural sciences with that of the social sciences and humanities. Only fluency across boundaries will provide a clear view of the world as it really is. (E. O. Wilson, 1998, p. 13)