Fundamental motives: How evolutionary needs influence consumer behavior - Griskevicius & Kenrick (2013) - Article

How can studying evolutionary needs inform us about consumer behavior?

Understanding evolutionary needs can provide insight into consumer preferences and decision processes. The decisions made by modern consumers are strongly connected to the same motivations that drove our ancestor´s choices about every day decisions. How different people allocate their limited resources in different circumstances can inform us about which needs they prioritize.

What is the evolutionary perspective?

An evolutionary perspective believes that all living organisms evolved to behave in ways that give those organisms an evolutionary advantage. This implies that modern humans have psychological mechanisms that help them to process information and make decisions in ways that have enabled our ancestors to survive, thrive, and replicate. Cognition, motivation, and behavior are all intertwined and part of an adaptive system designed to solve recurrent ancestral problems. 

What is the difference between proximate and ultimate motives?

A distinction needs to be made between proximate and ultimate motives when looking at the function and causes of behavior. Proximate motives relate to up-close and immediately present influences (to what people are currently feeling and thinking). They only tell part of the story, but don´t address the deeper question of why. Ultimate explanations focus on its evolutionary function. For example, eating a pizza tastes good and relieves hunger (proximate motive), but also salty and fatty foods help us survive (ultimate motive). Proximate and ultimate motives can be closely connected, but most of the time the connection is not that clear. Even though we are not always aware of our ultimate motives, the evolutionary perspective implies that there are always proximate and ultimate causes for our behavior.

What is the Fundamental Motives Framework?

The Fundamental Motives Framework maintains that humans have inherited psychological adaptations for solving a set of specific ancestral social challenges. These fundamental challenges are evading physical harm, avoiding disease, making friends, attaining status, acquiring a mate, keeping that mate, and caring for family. These challenges are considered fundamental because of the important implications they have had for reproductive fitness and human evolution. Each challenge is qualitatively different. A good solution to one of the challenges may be incompatible with the solution of another problem. Humans possess different psychological systems for managing the different evolutionary challenges.

Which three tenets of the framework can be identified?

The implications of fundamental motives for consumption and choice can be summarized in these three tenets:

• A fundamental motive can be activated by external (our environment) or internal (our biology) cues. For example, the mate acquisition system can be activated by the physical presence of a suitable partner (external), or by hormonal fluctuations (internal).
• The currently active fundamental motive shapes preferences. For example, when the self-protection system is activated it can motivate us to conform to the norm and stick with the group, but when the mate-acquisition system is activated we may want to stand out from the group and be different.
• The currently active motive guides decision processes. Fundamental motives can alter preferences, but also decision-making processes (how we go about maximizing our preferences).

What are the fundamental motives, their triggers, and examples of behavioral tendencies?

What is the evolutionary motive of self-protection?

The motive of self-protection pertains to evade physical danger to remain safe. Cues that can trigger this system are angry faces or expressions, darkness and loud noises, and interacting with threatening people. The activation of this system may lead to behaviors such as increased aversion to losses, increased tendency to conform and preference for the status quo, and decreased risk-seeking.

What is the evolutionary motive of disease avoidance?

This motive refers to avoid infections and staying healthy. People have evolved a psychological behavioral immune system that helps avoid infection through our behaviors. Cues that can trigger the disease-avoidance system are coughing, sneezing, bad smells, dirtiness, and interacting with sick people. It can cause people to become more introverted, to avoid used and second-hand products, and to seek clean products, and eat familiar foods.

What is the evolutionary motive of affiliation?

This motive is about forming and maintaining cooperative alliances. In order to survive successfully people needed to form coalitions and get along with other people. Having friends provides a natural insurance against starvation and difficult times. Cues that can activate this system are social rejection, loneliness, and concerns about fairness. It can cause people to be susceptible to gossip, and to seek reviews from others.

What is the evolutionary motive of status?

The evolutionary motive of status points to gaining and maintaining respect and prestige. Cues that can trigger this system are threats of competition and success, prestigious people, and interacting with rivals. When this system is activated it causes people to want to acquire products that signal prestige and status, and increase their prosocial choices. Another route to achieving status is through dominance and an activated status motive can increase aggressive behavior. However, status in groups can also be enhanced through self-sacrifice and can lead to behaviors of competitive altruism.

What is the evolutionary motive of mate acquisition?

This motive pertains to acquiring a desirable romantic partner. Cues that can trigger this system are images or products of desirable members of the opposite sex, romantic stories, and interactions with potential mates. When this system is activated it can cause increased male impulsivity, risk-taking, conspicuous consumption, and increased public altruism by females (it leads people to want to be noticed).

What is the evolutionary motive of mate retention?

This motive refers to fostering a long-term mating bond. This system can be activated by anniversaries, reminiscing old times, and interacting with the spouse. It may cause people to buy gifts for their partners, and for men and women to pay attention to other men´s and women´s statuses. It involves behaviors designed to maintain current relationships, as well as behaviors to manage threats of potential romantic competitors.

What is the evolutionary motive of kin care?

This motive causes people to want to invest in and care for family and kin. It can be triggered by vulnerable babies and children, suffering family members, and interactions with family members. It causes people to have increased trust in others, and also increases nurturance.

Which key factors influence people´s motives?

All humans possess the same evolutionary motives, but the strengths of the motives differ across individuals. The factors that influence the strengths of the motives are:

• Life stage. People go through three stages in life, namely the somatic growth stage (from birth to puberty), the mating stage (from puberty until parenthood), and the parenting stage (parenthood and grand-parenthood). Different motivational systems start working at different life stages, because each life stage is associated with solving different evolutionary challenges.
• Biological sex. Many behavioral sex differences are rooted in the biological sex differences of minimum parental investment, as females are required to invest more biologically than males.
• Individual differences in life history strategy. Life history strategies vary on a fast-slow continuum. Fast and slow strategists systematically differ in their psychological orientations and the activation of specific fundamental motives may produce different responses for the individuals. Fast strategists start puberty earlier, have sex earlier, and have more sexual partners. Slow strategists start puberty later, have sex later, and have fewer sexual partners.
• Culture. Preferences and behavior are a product of the interaction of evolved psychological mechanisms and requisite cultural inputs. Culture may influence the threshold at which the fundamental motives will be activated and also in what way.