I guess I could call this a “seasonal pick”, as Amazon keeps counting down the days to Black Friday:
Geoffrey Miller (2009). Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior
Geoffrey Miller presents an evolutionary psychology perspective on consumer decisions: why do we buy so much, and why do we buy the stuff we do?
(No, it’s not about cave dwellers and their preference for fur.)
Just like his earlier book “The Mating Mind”, it was very much worth reading the whole book, rather than just leafing through it and thinking that I “got the message”. The main message may indeed be simple (conspicuous consumption as a mating signal to indicate fitness), but there is a huge richness in data and an elegance of theory that make this book thought-provoking, amusing, and insightful on many levels. It also helps that Miller is a fearless, eloquent and humorous writer.
As far as food for thought goes, this book is delicious and satisfying.
Happy Thanksgiving!
by Ursina Teuscher (PhD), at Teuscher Decision Coaching, Portland OR
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