Consumerism, Sex, Advertising, and Human Nature: A Talk With Evolutionary Psychologist Gad Saad
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2024
- "The Ferrari is exactly the same in the human context," says evolutionary psychologist Gad Saad, "as the peacock's tail is on the peacock."
Saad is an evolutionary behavioral scientist at Concordia University and author of the book The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal about Human Nature, in which he argues that most consumer behavior can be explained by evolutionary psychology.
Reason.tv's Zach Weissmueller sat down with Saad to discuss why most Ferrari owners are men, whether or not advertising executives manipulate our minds, the strong political opposition to the evolutionary sciences from across the spectrum, and the evolutionary significance of Sir Mix-a-lot's "Baby Got Back."
About 10 minutes. Interview by Zach Weissmueller. Shot by Sharif Matar; edited by Weissmueller.
Visit Reason.tv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's UA-cam Channel to receive automatic notifications when new material goes live.
This guy is the Ron Jeremy of evolutionary psychology.
r\k?
All I can think of while having to watch this for class was "wow, this is what McLovin is up to these days"
Wish this was an hour. Good job.
Ever since I read "The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture" in the early nineties, I have, in the main, adhered to the hypotheses and theories of evolutionary psychology. One detail worth noting is that although all the instincts mentioned in this short clip by Professor Saad are very real and powerful, the plasticity of our neocortex, which gives us flexibility in our behavior, is also a result of evolutionary processes. In many cases therefore, our instincts can be controlled by choice. Professor Saad simply did not have the time to get into such detail considering that the time allotted was quite short. The ability to control our instinctual drives increases with age, as the power of those drives decreases. On a completely different note, far from excusing tobacco companies, Professor Saad is explaining what type of communication strategy would allow us to prevent young people, who are overwhelmed by a surge of vitality due to hormonal flooding, from smoking, and is basing his assertion on robust scientific theories.
Joseph Wehbe On the smoking thing, yup its what pure social constructivist people on one side and pure social darwinists on other side don't get. Understanding the biological competent lets us figure out more effective means of social influencing for positive results. I would hypothesize that lack of information does play a role just not as big a role in certain cases and certain forms. Stiglitz has some good work on cases in where it does and how.
I was so happy and then I Gad Saad.
Hey, it's Gaad!! Love his channel. So pleased this video turned up in my feed. Intelligent and interesting interview. 👍😀
Going to the ultimate causes of our Psychology.
Evolutionary Psychology is a glorious Revolution.
The Gadfather rocks.
comment
oh!
Fantano you son bitch, review November Coming Fire by Samhain
This is brilliant I absolutely love this. Everyone should watch this.
Great video, thanks ReasonTV!
Great Interview Zach! Wonderful questions!
Brilliant guy
this interview is friggen fascinating. good job reason. great topic, great questions, great answers from an intelligent guest. A+ reason
Great interview. Great interviewer.
So simplistic yet genius at the same time.
Unbelievably well spoken.
2020-2021... from the pandemic perspective, masks, vaccines and obedience boils down to a sales pitch, "wants and needs" on a planetary level!
hahaha! I didn't recognize him without his facial hair and under that sexy tan. Gaad is awesome.
I don't understand why so many people are hostile to evolutionary psychology. The forces that molded and sculpted humanity must be relevant to understanding the behavior of humans. (assuming you're not from Kansas)
If you want the evolutionary psychology theme mixed with traditional morality (they are not actually all that far apart) check, "Don't Submit to being Sacrificed on the Altar of Materialism." Aside from that, if people cannot recognize how their instincts are played by the marketers then they will be slaves to their desires, not masters.
We are programed from a young age to value these things, through advertizing. Yes, they are part of our nature, but not the ONLY part -and not the best...
@MicahBuzan Note: sorry for the misspellings.
interesting. got to suss out the book
love it
LOL, when you're getting attacked from both the left and the right, that's a good indication you're on the right track, at least as far as objectivity goes. :P
I wonder how many 'evil advertising execs' took some form psychology in college. B. F. Skinner was saying humans behave according to a genetic predisposition to conditioned responses more than 60 years ago. We respond to what we have learned is reinforcing. Some men may respond to a Prius the way his Ferrari pilots have, depending on the woman and other contingencies that they've been exposed to. Women could just about save the world. ;)
Interdasting stuff!
In “Occupying Chairlifts” a simple rule tweak on inheritance ends up changing the direction and purpose of modern human life! Here’s a fair way to transition forward to where we’re rewarded for cooperating and creating instead of competing and conquering.
It's something specific we can demand. If this isnt the best answer, at least we’re thinking about what might be. Are we really just this close to having it work right?
Oh yeah, it's a Ski movie! “Occupying Chairlifts” on UA-cam!
I don't understand how anyone can disagree with his points if trying to be objective. There will always be measurement problems and deviations in data from social sciences but it is the best means we have of understanding how things work. Subscribing to an ideology and arguing without empirical evidence is not.
@aseredy; does this then explain the phenomenom in females as well? Do females peacock as well?
Chad Saad
that tan though
I think people make consumer choices for different reasons. I drove a corvette for the experience, but was somewhat embarrassed of the image I thought it projected. I also drove a miata and was teased for it being feminine. I have settled on a corolla as the most practical form of transportation, coming to the conclusion other variety of automobile are immature
@boredmonkey29
top notch analysis Watson.
Quite interesting. Is this an interesting field to look into?
@MyDormantSoul Yeah, he probably should have explained why evolutionary psychologists think that we are hard wired to want fast food. From what I heard, they say we have an innate preference for foods that are high in proteins, fat and sugar (i.e., most junk foods), because those types of food were better at ensuring survival in primal conditions. This no longer applies to modern conditions in developed societies, but the preference is still there.
@guerrillaroach The video is 9 min long, and the book is 100s of pages. Controlling a powerful beast is still a social "win", even if that beast is mechanical. It could be a way males show mental and physical prowess. This builds confidence and is interpreted as a favorable trait to women. One could extend the "peacocking" principle to not only flashing of the tail (fast cars), but also skill, talent, and/or achievement. Because something is fun, doesnt exclude its social usefulness.
How does this prove that advertising's role in creating consumerism is wrong?
interviewer sounds like Nathan fielder
lol I thought that too
@boredmonkey29 have you studied it?
@richardcadbury The fact that you'd want a Ferrari even if there was no one to mate with doesn't negate the fact that your desire for the Ferrari is driven by your evolutionarily given desire to be a high status mate.
@MyDormantSoul well, he is talking about an entire book in 10 minutes. Sure there are some jumps, i imagine you would need to read the book to get the entire picture.
I still believe that some people need expensive things to fill the void or to over compensate for mental deficiencies , how ever I would say Im not a very materialistic person
@jetrpg22 even without flesh, which is by far the most calorie dense foods, if you do not flesh, then you will crave things like avocados, or nuts, which are also high in calories. Calorie density is always going to taste better. The question is if you can control the urge to fight the natural instinct to want to consume calories and attempt to balance your diet based on logic, and not emotion. Honestly, I think emotion controls most people's eating habits. Comfort food? always calorie dense.
@PeeGeeDee
If any of my comments seem illegible it's because they could use some clarification and are out of order. When sorted in proper order they should be more legible. If you or anyone finds them to be illegible please read them from oldest to newest. I would, if they weren't my comments, find them illegible in their current order. A video response would have been better but I'm new to UA-cam and am still learning it's features.
@PeeGeeBeeDee What you have stated is often true in a society that promotes such a psychology, but these patterns behavior are not genetically predetermined in humans. Yes, we are preconditioned to inapt certain behaviors. Men may be genetically preconditioned to violence thanks to testosterone, but a genetic precondition is not the same as a predetermination. Humans have the ability to learn and modify their behavior and to think critically about one's choices.
@MyDormantSoul Even when you do not eat meat to survive, there is still a physiological desire for calorie dense foods. If you eat avocados, or nuts, most people love the taste of them. They are also extremely calorie dense. Yes you can adapt, but in any paradiam you choose, calorie dense foods will always taste better. Hell, look at the most popular chiefs, and they will all contain high levels of butter, cheese, cream, etc.
@richardcadbury I can personally attest that appearances will stop being important after a long enough time in solitude. A Ferrari's ENGINE, however, will continue being useful
''you can't get 6.8 billion people to change. Those few people who do respond to the dire conditions of the future - journalists, environmentalists, behavioral scientists -tend not to be powerful,'' he said. ''So, we go to the powerful people: leaders in religion, government and industry. But these people are concerned (responding) with the present; the Pope is interested in saving souls, the governors in re-election and the tycoons in profits.''
Go JMSB
@richardcadbury Depends on which one. Ferrari 458, not necessarily a peacock tail. Any other Ferrari, definitely a peacock tail.
@Panpiper Well that has more to do with character than with what you own.
Wow! so I'm a survivalist because I like juicy burgers, not just my stockpile of food, guns, bullets and medical supplies.
it explains so much...
SOMG! I thought men would come and call out in public against sinners WAYYYYyyyyyy beyond this, but it's TIME! When people are against their own people, how can any justifiable thing BE?
Consumerism, Sex, Advertising, and Human Nature: A Talk With Evolutionary Psychologist Gad Saad (>)
Does the thrill of driving an amazing machine have nothing to do with it? Surely, being a peacock is not the full story and to say it is ignores the other variables in the equation.
I think he's very accurate. However, i think there is a balance between the ""primate side" and the "human side" of us. Or maybe the side that i call the "human side" which includes love, unconditional positive regard and not liking a guy who bought a ferrari is just another feature of the advanced primate mind and just an adaptation to the social relations that are born into and we have to live in. The side that does a random act of kindness maybe does it because it expects the same thing from other people in the future and does it in order to increase his/her credibility. Of course this thought process would be very automatic and not make it to our conscious awareness. Or maybe we don't think like that. It is really hard to be a human and to try to understand why we do stuff. We are weird, really weird.
Actually, the human brain, particularly the neocortex, has quite a bit of flexibility which allows us to occasionally circumvent instincts, especially for behavior which does not require an immediate reaction (affording us some time and perspective to process complex information), or when we are are not flooded by testosterone or progesterone. I would tend to think that a flood of hormones would cause us to very quickly and simplistically rationalize instinctive behavior in order to indulge in it without enduring the added strain of cognitive dissonance during these situations. I'll just point out, if I may, and that is just is just a matter of terminology, that biologists classify our species, Homo Sapiens, as primates.
@boredmonkey29 I would suggest to you that if your pet ideology is at odds with evolutionary psychology (hence your assertion that it is bullshit), if is far more likely that it is your ideology that is incorrect. Evolutionary psychology is based on the scientific method. What is your pet theory based on? Wishful thinking perhaps?
@jetrpg22 I dig it. Would love to chat more.
@MyDormantSoul That actually isn't true. Our desire for fatty food, comes from a biological for calories, and thus higher calorie density triggers our brain to desire it more. It also is known as food addiction, which you can feel free to google, there are full hour long seminars on the topic, and several of them. It is not a simple subject. Most of our history, we have been struggling to get enough calories, we are now in a time were we no longer need to worry, but now we need more nutrients.
DON'T EAT no beef if you don't KNOW the salesmen......!!
@warmongeringhippie - Apples and oranges.
What is Ezra Klein doing at Reason?!
@bluefootedpig
No shit? (thats sarcasm)
The video is about Evo psyc. And the speaker addressed how at certain periods of a biological cycle people desire certain foods, wear certain things etc.
You basically repeat my point without adding anything... why would you do that, i hate that (ex. fatty foods).
But the question is ARE the reasons for seeking types of food similar as humans (its bigger than just comfort foods), its about a myriad of bio events/cycles.
Individuals always beat always.
@clikityclankz - On what.? I said several things. Be specific, please.
Got me there lad, Evolutionary Psychology can't even fully explain for the evidence that a substantial group of people can be deviant to what they preach/teach/spout. Ergo, it is highly contestable.
Fossil records .... which? Seeing as transitional evidence is nadir.
I personally feel evolutionary psyc. as one of the stronger items of evidence for biological evolution. (Of which too many supporting items of evidence have been found fake or not to support jack)
Most that claim evidence of transitional records, preface: humans define the classifications for life and choose what is what, etc. Otherwise stated, we are using a different classification scheme to make this fit somewhere else.
@PeeGeeBeeDee More akin to a brid making a fancy nest with shiny and novel items to attract a mate.
golden tan from the golf course or Miami Beach with slimy corporate creatures that bread his butter
@sensibuddz Says the guy without a Ferrari.
This claim that we all have this Darwinian drive to behave as we do with ferraris, hamburgers, and all the rest is precisely the kind of theories that Dr. Mari Ruti warns about. Says she,
_"The French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir famously states that “one is not born a woman, but becomes one.” What she means is that none of us enters the world with an instinctive understanding of what being a woman means. We gather this understanding gradually, through being immersed in a cultural environment that holds particular views about men and women. We begin to learn how to correctly “perform” our gender well before we learn to speak. By the time we are adolescents, the codes of appropriate femininity _*_are so deeply ingrained, so automatic, that we consider them as innate._*_ We don’t recognize them as cultural constructs, but rather take them to be an accurate reflection of our “nature”; they are simply who we “are.” Cultural constructs are incredibly compelling. Saying that something is socially constructed (rather than natural or biological) doesn’t mean that it doesn’t feel real to us. Or that it’s easy to change. *__We internalize social messages on such a deep level that they become engraved in our psyches._*_ What initially enters our constitution from the outside world comes to function as an ingrained (seemingly inherent) component of our identity. After a while, we take socially constructed meanings to be indisputable facts; we forget that such meanings are not timeless truths but rather reflect collective values that have evolved over centuries of human efforts to understand the world. Gender stereotypes are among the most tenacious of such cultural fictions. There’s simply no way to disentangle them from biology, or even from the ways in which biologists choose to study biology. When it comes to Fisher’s evolutionary explanations, the line between biology and culture gets so blurry as to make some of her observations completely untenable"_
Ruti, Mari. Case for Falling in Love: Why We Can't Master the Madness of Love -- and Why That's the Best Part (p. 59). Sourcebooks. Kindle Edition.
_"When it comes to Fisher’s evolutionary explanations, the line between biology and culture gets so blurry as to make some of her observations completely untenable"_
I believe the same applies to Saad. Evolutionary psychologist underestimate the depth in which we, as humans, can be deeply conditioned in ways that not even the most astute psychologist can fathom. I'd like to see Dr. Ruti asking the questions instead of Zac.
So much is wrong with this comment.
To claim we are not biologically determined is a complete delusion ignoring the simple existence of common human needs seen everywhere, every time. And to specifically claim sex differences are not innate is to conveniently derive false conclussions by means of supressed evidence. She fails to adress problems that arise in cultures that ignore these gender roles, such as ours. She fails to rationalize why these cultural standards persist everywhere and keep re-occuring throughout history every damn time. She fails to adress the fact that we see these differences in our closest evolutionary cousins when they are just infants.
Yes, cultural standards (e.g. real men do MMA) do influence behaviour, but they are not arbitrarily constructed out of thin air, they are a derivative of human nature, they are our attempt at setting up laws and standards to best deal with our constant nature. To claim it is cultural gender roles that determine bahaviour and not human nature while completely ignoring the fact that it is human nature that we base gender roles on in the first place, is beyond dishonest.
It's quite clear you disagree with Dr. Ruti's observation. It seems you underestimate the psychological depth in which our cultural environment, such as it is, has adverse effects to our understanding of what it means to be a man or a woman. I'm reminded here of Hilde Bruch who in 1973, brought to public awareness eating disorders. Psychiatrists even to this day believe it is a mental disorder; a genetic defect. However, it was recently proven utterly false at The Karolinska Institute by Professor Per Soderston and Dr Cecilia Bergh’.
What kills women who suffer from eating disorders is not so much the disorder, but suicide because the psychotropic drugs given to them made their illness that much worse. And so, if it's been scientifically proven that eating disorders are not mental or genetic disorders, then what causes it? Dr. Bergh says that
_"Unlike traditional diagnoses, “we say that the psychiatric symptoms -such as anxiety, depression and obsessional behavior -are the consequences of the distorted eating rather than the cause”"_
www.journeyman.tv/film/2566/the-stockholm-solution?use_cur=EUR&
So then, what causes distorted eating? Would it be true to say that many young impressionable women, living in a cultural environment that hammers at them 24/7 unrealistic standards of beauty have unwittingly internalize such distorted standards thereby altering their consciousness to the point of starvation? I believe this is what Dr. Ruti is referring to. We internalize ideas, beliefs, and habits that have adverse effects to our well being and go against our *true nature*. As she said, we are socially constructed beings i.e. literally programmed to think, feel, and behave in ways that are good but also bad as in the case of eating disorders and supporting Trump..lol.
GnosisMan50
It wasn't an objective observation in any sense of the word, it was her own theory based on nothing as far as I could tell, unless there's more to it that you didn't mention. Mine on the other hand, was an observation. I observed that 99.999% of all societies ever, have had stereotypical gender roles, I've observed our closest cousins in the animal kingdom showing the same behaviour, I observed the dissatisfaction that occurs when people try to fight against their nature.
The logical conclussion I made based on that was that what little we have left of gender stereotypes in the west, aren't here by coincidence or made arbitrarily, but by natural design. In the same way, we hold different standards for kids based on their biological differences to us, this too is universally observed amongst all societies.
Oh and that was an unnecesarily long example. And it doesn't prove your point, nor does it disprove mine. I can apply the same logic here.
Because of evolutionary psychology, women are more inclined than men, to value their physical appearance. This then leads to the creation of various beauty standards throughout different cultures. It's women who lead the fashion industry, it's women who choose to undergo plastic surgery by the millions even despite the dissaproval of men. Again, the principle I presented applies here as well. Sure different cultures will set different standards of beauty, but the demographic that values their physical appearance more will always be women and the demographic that is more visually attracted to the appearance of the opposite sex will always be men.
To demonstrate what I mean in a hypothetical expiriment: raise 2 kids in a completely neutral environment, 1 boy and 1 girl, teach them how to survive, place them on an Island by themselves, revisit the Island a few centuries later and you'll have a society vastly different than ours, but with similar gender roles. No, I'd go even further and say raise the boy like a girl and raise that girl like a boy. Even then, the conclussion would still be the same.
A+ for the dude knowing Sir Mix-A-Lot
@blacktigerpaw1
this guys a boss, but he's got nothing on Buss
@MicahBuzan @PeeGeeBeeDee stop beefing
LMAO@@~~!!!!!..... shall u teach me? LMAO!!!!!!
@MyDormantSoul Except if you do not eat meat, say like a vegan, your taste buds will adapt, and start to crave the food it knows. As a vegan, who used to be a large meat eater, I can tell you first hand about how your taste buds will tell you to get the various foods your body needs. If your body only knows of meat, then you will crave it. I have been vegan for 2 years now, and I have no craving for meat. My story is not unique, just about every vegan has the same story.
first!
I like big butts and I cannot lie..! Class!
Doesnt make any sense, natural selection would choose those cognitive capacities that provide the greatest opportunity for adaptation ie those which allow for the most plasticity; self reflection, symbolic metaphor etc. Also prof Saad might need to go back to Freuds Ego and the ID & Beyond the Pleasure Principle to really gain a grasp of the enormity of possibility created by evolutions footprint on human reality. "Evolutionary Psychology" therefore appears to be a misnomer.
@PeeGeeBeeDee I'm Human, just like you.
this guy apparently has not read Erich Fromm's book "to have or to be"...if he did his evolutionary theory would fall flat on its face...
@365to173repubsPWNED Are you a Sociologist?
It looks like this guy has had one too many juicy burgers.
Holy fuk he has hair
Did anyone else think this guy looks like George Washington?
Advertisers are using the likes of this guys data without heed to health but with the same genetic predisposition of conditioning only theirs (advertisers) is in response to profits. I wonder if Modern Warfare 3 has increased the sales of Mountain Dew and Doritos by offering double XP with the purchase of select products. What's more is I wonder how many of these consumers will consider diabetes as a result of their behavior before of after it is to late.
@nameofthepen are you willing to bet your house, car and everything you have in your bank account on that?
Wow he just intelligently explain the same thing that have been in songs and comedy for forever, and some old black guy that couldn't read could explain the same thing. Interesting
ignores free will
Humans share many characteristics with animals. Unfortunately, none of these characteristics are interesting.
untrue, a peackock's tail isn't human-made
There is no intrinsic nature, only the environmental manipulation of our evolutionary psyche. ;)
Guy is trying to justify Edward Bernays. Jeez!
Tell me, do you have kids?
I disagree
I'm a somewhat attractive young woman an I couldn't give a sh*t about a ferrari. All I can think is "insecure person that has paid way to much for a machine whose function is getting you from point A to point B". Ferrari's, Harlequin romances, menstrual zombies....who are these women?
Booooooo!
He is carefully avoiding to make a value judgement on the adverstising industry. If we know we are predispositioned to crave this kind of TERRIBLY UNHEALTHY food. Doesnt it make sense to promote the spreading of this kind of information, or even to switch advertising the other way around, instead of being "congruent" (lol k) with our evolutionary needs, it should influence us, and remind us that, this kind of food IS TERRIBLE for your body????? i wonder how he rationalizes that.
César Mendoza Vásquez his purpose is to educate, not judge. I think he knows very well that advertisers are only in it for money, so they continue to do what's successful and advertise burgers.
I wonder how many corporations are paying this guy to spew this propaganda
[posted using a computer made by an evil corporation, though a website which is an evil corporation, with the help of your internet service provider which is an evil corporation]