Epic battles, whirlwind romances, family feuds, heroic attempts to save the lives of strangers: these are stories guaranteed to grace the silver screen. According to new research from Concordia University, that\u2019s not lazy scriptwriting, that\u2019s evolutionary consumerism<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Marketing professor Gad Saad says evolution has hard-wired humans to be naturally drawn toward a specific set of universal narratives within cultural products. His new article in the Journal of Consumer Psychology <\/em>shows that little in consumer behaviour can be fully understood without the guiding light of evolution.<\/p>\n \u201cThe human drive to consume is rooted in a shared biological heritage based around four key Darwinian factors: survival, reproduction, kin selection and reciprocal altruism<\/strong>. These fundamental evolutionary forces shape the narratives that are created by film producers or song writers,\u201d explains Saad, who holds the Concordia University Research Chair in Evolutionary Behavioural Sciences and Darwinian Consumption, within the John Molson School of Business.<\/p>\n That\u2019s true for other pop culture products like song lyrics, which Saad says offer \u201cone of the most direct windows to our evolved mating psychology.\u201d From Bieber to Beyonc\u00e9, it\u2019s all about signalling wealth and finding a mate<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Saad explains that the focus of 90% of songs is on universal sex-specific preferences in the attributes we desire in prospective mates. Male singers show off their wealth and engage in conspicuous consumption via high status brand mentions<\/strong>. On the other hand, female singers refer to their own \u201cbootylicious\u201d physical beauty and call for \u201cno scrubs\u201d in order to denigrate men of low social status.<\/p>\n \u201cRomance novels, pop songs and movie plotlines always come back to the Darwinian themes of survival (injuries and deaths), reproduction (courtships, sexual assaults, reputational damage), kin selection (the treatment of one\u2019s progeny), and altruistic acts (heroic attempts to save a stranger\u2019s life). Movies, television shows, song lyrics, romance novels, collective wisdoms, and countless other cultural products are a direct window to our biologically based human nature,\u201d says Saad.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just cultural products that demonstrate the evolutionary roots of what Saad terms \u201cHomo consumericus.\u201d From the food we eat to the clothing we buy, we\u2019re always under the influence of evolution.<\/p>\n For Saad, the practical implications are clear: \u201cIn order to achieve commercial success, cultural products typically have to offer content that is congruent with our evolved human nature<\/strong>.\u201d That means that Clark Kent will fall for Lois Lane while Superman saves the planet for a long time to come.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Concordia University press release via EurekAlert!: From Brad Pitt fighting zombies to Superman falling for Lois Lane, summer blockbuster season is upon us. But while Hollywood keeps trotting… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[96,233,364,12,156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14129"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14129"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14636,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14129\/revisions\/14636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Family](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/family_tv.jpg\")
From Brad Pitt fighting zombies to Superman falling for Lois Lane, summer blockbuster season is upon us. But while Hollywood keeps trotting out new movies for the masses, plotlines barely change<\/strong>.<\/p>\n