Homo Consumericus

The Nature and Nurture of Consumption

Dr. Gad Saad is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the John Molson School of Business (Concordia University) and author of The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption. See full bio

June 29, 2009, Evolutionary Psychology

Comments on "Evolutionary Psychology Yields Fascinating and Unexpected Findings."

Evolutionary Psychology Yields Fascinating and Unexpected Findings.

By Gad Saad, Ph.D. on June 29, 2009 in Homo Consumericus

A biochemist recently challenged me to identify a single valuable and/or interesting finding that evolutionary psychology (EP) has produced. Notwithstanding the astonishing hyperbole inherent to such a statement, I decide to take him up on his offer. In today's post, I list a small set of findings originating from the EP framework that I consider to be demonstrative of the field's capacity to generate interesting, innovative, and powerful findings. I am hoping that the readers will note that none of the findings are congruent with genetic determinism; none condone or justify rape or male infidelity; none consist of fanciful just-so story telling; and none posit unfalsifiable hypotheses. Archimedes, as shown in the teaser image, was famous for having had a Eureka moment. Let's hope that I might trigger an Archimedean epiphany in some of the anti-EPers albeit I suspect that their staunchly held opinions are non-malleable.

#7 and #10

Submitted by V Abbass on July 4, 2009 - 1:37pm.

Now I am having a "Eureka moment" or at least a "this confirms what I always maintained and derided moment." Many women are affected by and buy into "parental uncertainty." When I was in the hospital for a tubal ligation there were women in the ward with me who were having their tubes reconstructed. One woman already had children from a first marriage, but she was going through a painful and not guaranteed successful procedure so she could have her new husband's baby.

I am not disputing the findings in the article "Which grandparent are you closest to?" However, I am saddened by them (why does love for a child depend on who provided the sperm and the egg) and by the comments from Mary on December 12, 2008 and the two grandmothers who agree with her. They are three women who believe, with me, that a grandchildren, as well as nieces or nephews, are among life's great pleasures. The biological source of these pleasures should not matter.

Great examples Gad

Submitted by Gil Greengross on July 15, 2009 - 6:28pm.

From my own experience, those who hold an agenda against ev psych will never be convinced. They challenge you to give examples, and when you do so, they dismiss them without a good reason. They have double standards regarding ev psych research and everything else. I usuallt challenge them to give me an example of one good study in other areas in psychology and explain why it's better than the studies I show. They usually just disappear at that point.