Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Evolutionary psychologist Miller (The Mating Mind) examines conspicuous consumption in order to further his (not entirely complementary) goals—to rectify marketing's poor understanding of human spending behavior and critique consumerist culture. According to the author, our purchases are powerful indicators of our personality and are used to lure in suitable mates and friends. The book defends the current psychological view of personality as varying along six axes: intelligence, openness to new experiences, conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability and extroversion. While there is significant support for the author's contention that variation in these basic categories reflect genetic inheritance, preferences for each of them vary from society to society, from historical moment to moment and even within individual lives (e.g., conscientiousness tends to increase over the course of our lives as mating strategies shift from attracting short-term partners to maintaining long-term relationships). Miller is an engaging writer, even if his attempts at humor fall flat. What remains troubling is his failure to account for how a full range of traits can coexist in the same cultural environment and continue to be perpetuated across generations. (May)
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From School Library Journal

Evolutionary psychologist Miller (The Mating Mind) digs deep into the primal past of humankind to discover the roots of…modern marketing? Actually, his focus is more on the makings of modern consumer culture—of which marketing is, he argues, a dominant force. Since evolutionary psychology seeks to examine how natural selection acts on psychological and mental traits, Miller applies this knowledge to help us understand what actually motivates us to buy. He pokes fun at popular culture and at the things we buy and flaunt to inflate our self-esteem and try to make ourselves more attractive. Personality research can inform the study of consumer behavior, and Miller shows us how having a better understanding of our own personalities will help us avoid the pitfalls of runaway consumerism. After all, millions of years of evolution have honed humans' natural abilities to win friends and mates, so why resort to expensive and ridiculous substitutes for our true identities and personalities? For both lay readers and academics, reading this book should be considered time well "spent."—Carol J. Elsen, Univ. of Wisconsin, Whitewater
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (May 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670020621
• ISBN-13: 978-0670020621
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #19,716 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #25 in	Books > Business & Investing > Marketing & Sales > Consumer Behavior
  #59 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Evolution

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars safe for consumption, May 18, 2009

By	Dr. Fred J. Mbogo "mbogo" (san francisco) - See all my reviews

True to the spirit of this book, I purchased a flawless copy of it at a library book sale for $5 (I believe it was an unread review copy). As an insatiable reader of Evolutionary Psychology books, I immediately read it, even though I have several thousand other books previously purchased from library sales waiting in my queue. This is one of the most entertaining books I have read, both in terms of its academic content and the writing style (the author has a great sense of humor). The book does not assume background knowledge, though I found that it tied together ideas I had previously encountered in books such as "The Moral Animal", The Third Chimpanzee", "The Red Queen", "The Origins of Virtue", "The Economic Naturalist", etc. (all of which I also highly recommend). The description of consumers as narcissists (great spelling bee word, I hope I got it right) and the various discussions of the central six personality traits are quite thought-provoking. The author isn't afraid to discuss issues backed by evidence that are, however, "politically incorrect", such as the negative effects of the dearth of shared norms in culturally diverse communities. The book also stays consistently well-written and informative throughout (i.e. it shows no evidence of the last third of the book being rushed to meet a deadline or padded to meet a length requirement). The section toward the end about consumption taxes and negative/positive externalities should be required reading for everyone.

One final thing I admire about the book. Concerned parties (author, publisher, editor, etc.) didn't submit a fake 5-star first review posted by someone who has only reviewed one book and writes in an obviously promotional style. I think this book will receive great reviews based on merit. I actually read the book and highly recommend it.

Oh, one other thing. The jacket design is superb. The picture reminds me of myself hunting/gathering at Trader Joe's.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Evolutionary Psychologist Looks at Consumer Capitalism, May 25, 2009

By	Richard Hoste "www.hbdbooks.com" - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

The classical economics model presupposes that humans behave in rational ways. Besides the denial of the heredibility of personality traits, it's hard to find a more groundless axiom. A fake Rolex from Replicagod.com is hard to distinguish from the real thing. It costs $1,200 and instead of $30,000. We can't say the reason is that so people know you have a Rolex because you'll probably never meet anyone who knows the difference. A $300 Moissanite ring looks just like a $30,000 diamond one. Such examples are not just limited to fashion. Technology is famous for quick price drops after initial release.

What we pay for is a brand name or technology that signals our personality traits. We want to be associated with a brand name and the cool, popular people that advertise it. A man may have the desire to look tough because in prehistoric time that led to mating success. The job of GM marketers is to convince him that if he buys their product he'll be able to at least convince others of him having that quality. Objectively, such trait displays are irrational and do not work. Think of the time that it takes to make enough money to buy a $100,000 car instead of a $5,000 one. For those of us with the most basic social skills that time could be better spent socializing; that is, if attracting mates is the goal. The most attractive personality traits such as humor, charm and making people comfortable can't be bought and beauty only can be to a very limited extent.

Studies show that young people will conspicuously consume more after being "sexually primed," reading a story about meeting and spending time with an attractive member of the opposite sex. Such behavior has roots in our evolutionary past. A young man and woman are out and about 30,000 YA. Our young friend decides to impress his female companion by killing a woolly mammoth. He proves his strength and courage, she gets turned on by the masculine display and they find a cave in which to engage in mind blowing sex. Today, the equivalent of risk taking behavior and showing fitness is stopping at Circuit City and buying the latest IPod with the swipe of a debit card after wasting 10 hours of life sitting in a cubicle.

Miller isn't short on solutions either for us as individuals or as a society. Some are reasonable and hard to argue with. Don't buy expensive stuff when there are just as good substitutes available for a fraction of the price. Instead of getting the new printer, wait six months for the price to half.

Other suggestions are just scary. We are always going to want to signal our traits to one another and the only question is how we can do it in a more efficient and reasonable manner. Psychologists list the big five personality traits of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism in addition to intelligence as the basic components of personality. All signaling comes down to showing off one or a combination of those traits. So why don't we all just have our personality traits measured by trained psychologists and then tattooed on our foreheads? That'll save time! I waited for Miller to say "just kidding" but he never did.

The most important suggestion is to get government out of the way, "legalize freedom," do away with anti-discrimination laws and let people form the kind of communities they want where there will be ways other than consuming things to gain status. Mormons should be allowed to ban homosexuals from their community and vice versa. The government opposes this because if there were ways to gain status besides working and buying things they wouldn't be able to tax it. True enough, but there are ideological factors too that the author ignores. He also ignores the history of anti-discrimination laws and why they came into effect in the first place.

If people were free to live near and socialize with who they wanted the first thing they'd do is split up by race. NPR admits that integration has failed despite the fact that explicit residential segregation is prohibited and that whites will lose money to live away from minorities, particularly blacks. Miller says in his world Black Muslims would be able to form communities that keep out white oppressors. In the real world, it's whites who flee diverse areas and that trend would intensify if it were made legal.

One star is deducted for the bow to PC and some of the post-hocness of a lot of the evo-psych theories. Still an important book for understanding the modern world.

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I buy, therefore I am, May 21, 2009

By	Julie Neal "The Complete Walt Disney World" (Sanibel Island, Fla.) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

My husband and I play a game when we drive: he points out a car and I tell him what I think that driver thinks other people think of his choice of car. Then I say what I think it really reveals. A Hummer? The driver is a primal hunter-gatherer, powerful and dripping in testosterone. There are very different stories about the Jeep with no doors, the yellow Beetle, the big slow Cadillac.

Spent is all about the prehistoric origins behind the decisions to buy these cars, and every other product, as well. The science of human nature, called evolutionary psychology, teaches us that people decide to buy stuff to advertise "our biological potential as mates and friends." Understanding the reasons behind these decisions can help us become better consumers, and more aware of why people act the way they do.

It's a fascinating read! The idea that you can use the Info section on Facebook to accurately sum up a person is right on target. And I loved the quiz identifying the Central 6 human characteristics: General intelligence, openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, stability and extraversion. Apparently I'm very open and pretty extraverted; I'll have to work on my stability!

Here's the chapter list:

1. Darwin Goes to the Mall
2. The Genius of Marketing
3. Why Marketing is Central to Culture
4. This Is Your Brain on Money
5. The Fundamental Consumerist Delusion
6. Flaunting Fitness
7. Conspicuous Waste, Precision and Reputation
8. Self-Branding Bodies, Self-Marketing Minds
9. The Central Six
10. Traits That Consumers Flaunt and Marketers Ignore
11. General Intelligence
12. Openness
13. Conscientiousness
14. Agreeableness
15. The Centrifugal Soul
16. The Will to Display
17. Legalizing Freedom
Exercises for the Reader
Further Reading and Viewing