New study uncovers evolutionary roots of conspicuous consumption

It’s sometimes said that people buy products they don’t really need, with money they don’t really have, to impress people they don’t really like. This behaviour is known as conspicuous consumption because these consumers want others to see them with the product.

Until now, it has been assumed that conspicuous consumption is irrational and the result of marketing and advertising. New research led by Athabasca University’s Dr. Jim Swaffield and Dr. Jesus Sierra Jimenez from Vancouver Island University challenges these commonly held assumptions. 

“The desire to display or be seen with these products is triggered by an interaction between environmental conditions and one’s evolved biology,” said Swaffield, the study’s principal investigator. “When one is seen owning or using these products a message or signal is sent to onlookers. These messages might signal that one has wealth, physical power, or social status.”

Some products could also be used to intimidate others.

This drive to use products as a means of communication is triggered by a gene-environment interaction.

“Genetics is the gun, and the environment is the trigger,” Swaffield explained.

Conspicuous consumption helped our early ancestors survive and find mates

Swaffield and Jimenez published a new peer-reviewed study that explores how nature and nurture interact and affect the desire for signalling products. In their study, the researchers examined the effect of financial harshness, social harshness, and physically harsh conditions on the desire for signalling products.

Swaffield, who has a doctorate in evolutionary psychology, explained the human brain has evolved to think in a way that favours survival and reproductive success. Through evolution, humans have developed the ability to unconsciously sense subtle changes in environmental conditions that signal the environment is becoming safer or harsher.  

These subtle changes in environmental conditions can unconsciously trigger the desire for products that promote survival, intimidate rivals, and attract a mate.

For example, when the environment is perceived to be harsh and unsafe, the conspicuous display of products that create an image of toughness can provide a protective function by intimidating potential aggressors. 

Likewise, beautifying and wealth-signalling products can make one more attractive to potential mates.  Swaffield noted, however, that when the environment is perceived to be too harsh, the desire for conspicuous consumption shuts down because people do not want to be noticed. 

Testing the effect of nature-nurture on product desire

In their study, Swaffield and Sierra Jimenez explored whether different types of environmental stressors such as social isolation, financial difficulties, and concerns for physical safety, have different effects on the desire for signalling products.

To test how nature-nurture interactions affect product desire, they ran an online experiment that included 315 women and 314 men from across Canada. In a pretest, women were shown images of beautifying and wealth-signalling products and asked to rate how much they desired each item.

The male participants were shown images of wealth-signalling and toughness-signalling products and were then asked to rate how much they desired each item.

Next, the participants were assigned to one of six experimental groups. Once assigned to a group, each participant read a one-page story that evoke feelings of living in one of the following environmental conditions: socially safe, socially harsh, financially secure, financially insecure, physically safe, and physically unsafe.

After reading their assigned story, a product desire post-test was administered. This involved re-rating all the products that were previously shown in the pretest. The results showed that the desire for signalling products varies depending on the type and intensity of the environmental stressor.

Swaffield explained that prior studies have correlated mild environmental harshness with increases in desire for signalling products. However, as shown in this study, as financial and physical safety conditions become acute, the desire for signalling products decreases. 

What is also interesting, he said, is that there was minimal change in the desire for signalling products when participants were exposed to safe social and harsh social environmental conditions.   

Shift needed in how we think about consumer behaviour

Swaffield said the findings support the perspective that a fundamental shift is needed in how we think about what drives consumer behaviour. It should also prompt us to ask if conspicuous consumption is an outcome of a nature-nurture interaction rather than advertising efforts—are marketers wasting money when they try to stimulate product desire through advertising?

Finally, government policymakers should also ask if product desire is an outcome of a nature-nurture interaction. This raises the question of whether advertising bans can be effective at curbing problematic consumer behaviours such as compulsive buying disorders and over consumption.

The study, Unconscious Drivers of Consumer Behavior: An Examination of the Effect of Nature-Nurture Interactions on Product Desire was published in September in the peer-reviewed journal Behavioral Sciences.