Miguel Barbosa, Simolone Sense Reviews Geoffery Millers Spent
- 1. SpentSex, Evolution, & Consumer BehaviorWritten By Geoffrey MillerPart 1: Book OutlineBook Review & Outline By Miguel A. Barbosa Editor & Founder Of SimoleonSense.com息 2009 Miguel Barbosa
- 2. Understanding 21st Century ConsumerismConsumerism = Human instincts for trying unconsciously to display certain desirable personal traits+ current social norms for displaying traits through certain kinds of credentials, jobs, goods, & services+ current technological abilities & constraints+ certain social institutions and ideologies+ historical accident & cultural inertia
- 3. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookRecent studies confirm that men increase the conspicuousness of their consumption when they are most interested in mating. Teenagers seem to have evolved similar systems to learn what culture specific fitness indicators are favored in their local eco niche, social niche, or market niche.
- 4. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookProducts fall into 2 categoriesThings that display our desirable traits and bring us status when others see that we own themThings that push our pleasure buttons and bring us satisfaction even if no one else knows we have them*So, For every aspect of human nature, for every dimension of variation in human personality, intelligence, virtues, and values there exists a market with product sets that we can draw from to broadcast our personal traits to others.
- 5. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookFrom an evolutionary viewpoint Maslows Hierarchy is muddled.BecauseIt mixes innate drives Learned concerns
- 6. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookMarketing is central to our culture It is the attempt to fulfill human desires by producing goods and services that people will buy. The best marketing companies help us discover desires we never knew we had and ways of fulfilling them we never imagined
- 7. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookDownsides of Marketing: Marketing is the grand illusion, the veil of maya, backed by billion dollar advertising campaigns. It perpetuates the delusion that desire leads to fulfillment*.Marketing does not promote materialism. Actually it avoids materialism at all costs. If consumers comparison shopped solely on the basis of objective material features and costs, the products themselves would be reduced to commodities. Commodities cannot be sold for serious profits in a competitive market.*This quote was modified via page 43 of Spent
- 8. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThe key to marketing is that the mental associations become more important that the actual physical qualities of a good or service. According to Millers interpretation of Plato, Democracy is marketing applied to politics. (Thus it shifts power from elites to the people)
- 9. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookPower of marketing:Replace the illusion of popular consent with the reality of a world shaped to fulfill ordinary (individual)desiresMarketing is the only revolution that has succeeded in bringing real economic power to the people. Marketing has transformed the natural world into a playground for human passions.
- 10. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookHuman beings consume more than half the biomass grown each year on earth. In other words one lucky species sucks up half of the biospheres annual output and transforms it into work roles & leisureMost of this consumption is structured by marketing. So: Marketing at this moment dominates life on earth!
- 11. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The Book Because modern science has not provided a deep understanding of marketing, most behavioral sciences have ignored marketing and thus ignored one of the mainsprings of modern culture.
- 12. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThe Consumerist Mindset Is Central To MarketingWhat mental illness if most analogous to consumerism? Answer: NarcissismNarcissism (Combines a need for admiration by others with a lack of empathy for others)
- 13. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookNarcissists alternate between public status seeking (showing off)private pleasure seeking. (self stimulating)These are two key components of consumerist mindset. There is a parallel between nonhuman animals displaying fitness indicators and chasing fitness cues and humans seeking status and pleasure whether as narcissists or consumers.
- 14. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookMiller calculates a cost per pound net weight index for varying products and finds the following. (recommend looking at this chart on pages 60-62)The basic requirements for survival do not cost very much. Basic comforts of modern life are the next cheapest goods.Once cost density reaches 225 dollars per pound we reach consumer narcissism Conclusion: Living doesnt cost much. Showing Off Does.
- 15. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookOur inherited adaptations are the most precious gifts/products we could ever have. The human genome is the ancestral vault of riches But:It is very important for consumerist capitalism to make us forget this and take for granted what we owe to life itself.
- 16. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookOne of the potential political problems of consumerist capitalism & marketing:Is that we (may) become economicallyempowered but politically neutered.
- 17. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookUnderstanding The Role Of Status: Status = anything that provokes social interest, attraction, or deference. In primates high status animal is one who is looked at and groomed more often by others. High status people are solicited more often as friends, allies, and mates.
- 18. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThe Role of Taste:Taste is a way for us to sort one another out and thus choose friends and mates. Taste in general attempts to reflect intelligence, personality, and ideology. 2 Goals of Taste:Attract Likeminded IndividualsRepulse Differently minded individuals.
- 19. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookWhat are the most desirable traits that we display via our tastes?Answer: Those related to biological fitness. These traits must be universal, stable, and heritable. Physical attractiveness, Physical health,Mental healthIntelligencePersonalityKey: We can discern these traits quickly via human conversation but we work hard to display them via goods and services
- 20. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookWhat is the underlying premise of consumer narcissism?Answer: That people actually (1)notice and (2)care about the products we buy and display. & We often over estimate how much others actually do.
- 21. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookIronically, The traits that are the most salient and relevant to people are the traits that are hardest for purchased products to signal reliably or misrepresent credibly. Very difficult to buy goods that can alter age, sex, race, disguise health/mental problems.
- 22. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookExample of Teenage Dating & TraitsTeenagers are overwhelmingly influenced by the traits that are easiest to asses (physical attractiveness and status among peers)Parents have experience in assessing harder to discern traits (emotional stability, intelligence, etc)The ability to judge character was considered a major part of wisdom and virtue before consumerism made these concepts sound unfashionable.
- 23. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookTriumphs of Consumerism/Marketing over dating.Rejection of the idea that an individuals personality, intelligence, mental health, and moral virtues are useful and worth evaluating & discussing.Rejection of the idea that these traits show stability within individuals and within families.
- 24. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookConsumerism depends on forgetting a truth and believing a falsehood.Truths: 1. We have spent millions of years evolving awesome effective ways to display our mental and moral traits and thus our finest most impressive goods are endowed to us by our DNA. 2. We have everything we could possibly need to impress our fellow humans. Falsehoods: Above average products can compensate for below average traits when one is trying to build long term relationships with mates, friends, or family. Products offer cooler more impressive ways to display our desirable traits than any natural behavior could provide.
- 25. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookWhen buying unnecessary goods be sure to ask: how many new friendships, business partnerships, dinner party invitations, or mating opportunities will result from this purchase.
- 26. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookModern marketing is about:allowing most important things to go unsaid but not unimagined.
- 27. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookUnderstanding Fitness Indicators:Fitness indicators proclaim (1) quality & (2) guarantee good genes.Fitness indicators attract attention if they are:CostlyHard To ProduceHard to FakeConversely they are ignored if they are:CheapHard to ProduceHard to Fake**The irony of consumerism & fitness indicator is that from a purely pragmatic value the real version of a product is a bigger rip off than the fake version.
- 28. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookDue to Fitness Indicators Advertisements have 2 Audiences:Potential product buyersPotential product viewers who will credit the product owners with various desirable traits (or fitness indicators)
- 29. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThus combining cost signaling theory and marketing we create a situation where:Half the work that is done in the world is to make things appear what they are not
- 30. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookHeres the kicker: Reliable signaling demands some sort of conspicuous waste a highly visible expenditure of resources that brings no material benefit, but that simply signals the expenders ability and willingness to waste those resourcesThink: H1 hummers & peacock tails.
- 31. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookApart from typical indicators, many animals evolve badges of fitness or status. (these dont rely on conspicuous waste rather on conspicuous reputation)Badges maybe easy to grow and maintain for those who are socially recognized as deserving them. But if individuals display them without merit they will be socially punished by others. **Many human designed products rely on status badges which are called brands. Badges are ferociously protected via (trademark laws, etc) Hmm, Could this impact high status items such as fancy college degrees.
- 32. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookConspicuous waste is simply a way to display ones control over local matter and energy flows by monopolizing more resources than are necessary for short term self preservation. The Payoff:The long term preservation of ones genes.
- 33. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThere is another concept called conspicuous precision which would manifest in perfect workmanship, quality, and reliability: of genes products or serviceConspicuous Precision was the businessmans nightmare of the 1950s: If consumers demanded only precision then every product would operate efficiently for decades = economic catastrophe with no one producing or purchasing anything.
- 34. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookSo politicians, businesses, investors, and marketers in the 1950s 1960s developed. Obsolescence & Technological Pseudo ProgressRead The following books for more on this topic:The hidden persuadersThe status seekersThe waste makers
- 35. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookConspicuous reputation: acknowledges the core function of consumerist capitalism- the invidious display of one personal qualities to observers and so allows marketers and consumers to fulfill that function
- 36. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookMiller uses the Central 6 Dimensions Of Human behavior .makes the case that we evolved these traits because they are genetically heritable and stable across lifespan and because we can infer much about character, capabilities, virtues, and vices if we know these traits. 6 traits are (we are general either high or low in each trait): 1. General Intelligence 2. Openness 3. Conscientiousness 4. Agreeableness 5. Stability 6. Extraversion
- 37. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookAccording to miller the key is:*Humans have the incentive to present our central traits in adaptively biased ways. The skill required to do this is called: Impression Managment
- 38. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookHere is a Breakdown of the (High to Low) continuum for each trait. 1. General Intelligence (High IQ Low IQ) 2. Openness (Liberalism/Eccentricity traditionalism/conservatism) 3. Conscientiousness (responsibility/caution impulsiveness/recklessness) 4. Agreeableness (kindness/gentleness/altruism high aggressiveness, dominance) 5. Stability (high happiness/self esteem high anxiety/worries/neuroticism) 6. Extraversion (high extraversion low extraversion)
- 39. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThe General Intelligence (Trait)Ironically educated elites remain implacably opposed to the very concept of general intelligence and deny its variance, generality, and importance.General intelligence correlates positively with: mental health, physical health, longevity, romantic attractiveness. Universities offer a costly, slow, unreliable intelligence indicating product that competes directly with cheap, fast, more reliable iq tests.
- 40. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThe General Intelligence (Trait)Contemporary higher education is .an absurdly expensive, time consuming way to guarantee intellectual capital and personality traits that could be measured far more cheaply ,easily, and reliable by other means.
- 41. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThe Openness (Trait)Research shows that the risk of parasitic infection predicts lower openness, lower extraversion, lower individualism, and lower liberalism across individuals and societies
- 42. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThe Openness Trait Openness is crucial to consumerism because it drives novelty seeking, fads, and fashions This is the key to planned obsolescence
- 43. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThe Conscientiousness TraitMost of adulthood people strive to present a public fa巽ade of high conscientiousnessbecause it is mostly favored by educators, employers, co-workers, doctors, tax collectors, loan sharks, spouses, etc.The market provides goods and services that can function as a conscientiousness indicator.
- 44. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThe Conscientiousness TraitExample: What fitness machine sales people are really selling is The delusion that the sunk costs of buying the machines will force them to exercise conscientiously.
- 45. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThe Conscientiousness TraitSchool, Work, Credit three pillars of consumer capitalism Is it a coincidence that they are the most reliable indicators of conscientiousness (traits)
- 46. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThe Agreeableness TraitMales display low agreeableness in trying to court and impress a femaleonce the relationship is established males are then agreeable for long term success. *assertiveness and independence via anti conformity are useful for impressing a woman as long as it doesnt make them look more negative than rivals (or embarrasses them)
- 47. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThe Agreeableness Trait***Understanding Politics****Most people in modern societies have little political power, yet they do have strong political convictions that they broadcast insistently, frequently, and loudly. So are we interested in politics?Men use political conservatism to (unconsciously) advertise their likely social and economic dominanceWomen use political liberalism to advertise their nurturing abilities*Liberalism and Conservatism here do not allude to political inclinations but rather levels of agreeableness.
- 48. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThe Agreeableness TraitUnderstanding Politics****The shift from liberal youth to conservative middle age reflects a mating relevant increase in social dominance and earning power not just a rational shift in ones self interest.
- 49. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The BookThe Agreeableness Trait: Understanding ReligionReligions used to be a set of local monopolies segregated by ethnicity, culture, and language, but over time rituals, laws and taboos became more elaborate as runaways indicators of high conscientiousness and low openness. New sects began to break off when young worshippers wanted to show off different personality traits such as openness, extraversion, and agreeableness. This reflects a gradual market segmentation in which religious services industry replaced the regional monopolies with a proliferation of startup religions. *Now a days consumers pick religions less by family tradition and more by individual selection of personality display strategy.
- 50. Collection of Quotes & Snippets From The Book