Gad Saad - The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal About Human Nature

Gad Saad has cleverly applied the insights of evolutionary psychology to our behavior as consumers. He is able to explain a huge amount of behavior using these insights. As consumers, we will profit from understanding the sources of our own behavior. Marketers will also benefit from understanding the deep evolutionary basis of the behavior of their customers. Moreover, the book is entertaining and readable. I recommend it strongly.

Paul H. Rubin,
Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Economics,
Emory University

Gad Saad clearly and strongly shows how our evolved preferences and strategies influence our modern consumption decisions, and he doesn't pull any punches. Evolution mattersand those who understand its impact on human behavior, whether corporations or consumers, will reap the financial benefits.

Peter Todd, professor of cognitive science,
informatics, and psychology, Indiana University;
coauthor of Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart

Eventually, marketing will be informed by evolutionary analyses, as people who sell things strive to understand the design of the minds they're selling to. Saad is among the first to shine a Darwinian light on our consumerist proclivities. From advertising to zoophilia, in this well-written book, packed with research findings and interesting examples, The Consuming Instinct elegantly explains patterns of human consumptionand much more.

Robert Kurzban, author of
Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite

A wonderfully engaging and wide-ranging tour of human tastes, aversions, and desires, conducted with verve and wit, all soundly grounded in the sound principles of modern Darwinism.

Nigel Nicholson, professor of Organizational Behavior
at London Business School; author of
Managing the Human Animal

Published 2011 by Prometheus Books

The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal about Human Nature. Copyright 2011 by Gad Saad. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a website without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Cover image Media Bakery
Cover design by Nicole Sommer-Licht

Inquiries should be addressed to
Prometheus Books
59 John Glenn Drive
Amherst, New York 14228-2119
VOICE: 716-691-0133
FAX: 716-691-0137
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Saad, Gad.

The consuming instinct : what juicy burgers, Ferraris, pornography, and gift giving reveal about human nature / by Gad Saad.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61614-429-6 (alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-61614-430-2 (e-book)

1. Consumer behavior. 2. Consumption (Economics)Psychological aspects. 3. ConsumersPsychology. 4. Evolutionary psychology. I. Title.

HF5415.32.S18 2011
339.4'7dc22

2010052000

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

F irst and foremost I wish to thank Linda Greenspan Regan, my editor at Prometheus Books, for her support throughout the process but most importantly for believing in my book. She read the first draft of my book with great care and always responded to my queries in a timely and professional manner. In their able capacities as copyeditor, proofreader, production manager, and jacket designer, respectively, Dee Stiffler, Julia DeGraf, Catherine E. Roberts-Abel, and Nicole Lecht were a pleasure to interact with. Barbara Oakley and Steven Kotler provided me with valuable advice about many aspects of the trade book market, whereas Eva Samartzidis and Albert Saad Jr. offered their legal opinions regarding contractual matters. My graduate students Eric Stenstrom and Zack Mendenhall assisted me in procuring the photos along with the corresponding signed permissions forms. Eric's organizational skills were instrumental in managing the photo acquisitions process. I am thankful to all the photographers, and especially to the DeVore family, for their generosity in allowing me to use their photos for minimal fees (and in a few instances for free). The parental leave that was granted to me by both the Quebec government and by my university, coupled with the course remissions afforded by my Concordia University Research Chair, were instrumental in freeing up my time to write this book. My soul mate of more than ten years, Annie Ortchanian; my daughter, Luna; and our majestic Belgian shepherds, Amar and Samra; offered an endless stream of love and affection throughout my journey. I am deeply honored that one of my intellectual heroes, David M. Buss, agreed to write the foreword to this book. Finally, as I explained in the preface to my 2007 book, The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption, I was first exposed to the explanatory power of evolutionary psychology in 1990, when I read the book Homicide by Martin Daly and Margo Wilson. Earlier this year, Dr. Wilson, who served as one of the endorsers of my 2007 book, passed away. Her intellectual legacy will continue to influence many future generations of evolutionary behavioral scientists.

E volutionary psychology is beginning to penetrate all disciplines that deal with human behavior. This progression is logical. All human behavior owes its existence to psychological mechanisms in conjunction with environmental inputs to those mechanisms. Psychological mechanisms, at some fundamental level, owe their existence to evolution by natural and sexual selection. Consequently, all fields that deal with human behavior will become more deeply illuminated by understanding underlying evolved psychological adaptations.

For a number of years, I envisioned marketing specifically and business more generally to be ideal disciplines for evolutionary psychological analysis. This integrative synthesis requires a scholar thoroughly knowledgeable about both fields. Dr. Gad Saad is that scholar. He brings a profound understanding of evolutionary psychology together with deep knowledge of marketing and business to illuminate the many and differing forms of consumer behavior. And he does so with a lively and engaging writing style that keeps the reader fascinated from start to finish.

In the process, The Consuming Instinct provides a profound understanding of many otherwise perplexing phenomena: Why are women so much more susceptible to eating disorders than men? Why do men discount the future (i.e., value immediate rewards more intensely) after seeing pictures of attractive women? Which underlying psychological adaptations are responsible for successful ad campaigns for men's products such as Axe? Why do women go to tanning salons, even with the knowledge that they cause skin damage, and why do they continue to wear high heels, despite the fact that they are so uncomfortable? Why is online pornography consumed primarily by men, yet women mainly fuel the multibillion-dollar romance novels industry?