Evolutionary Motives Research Articles

Survival of the greenest: how evolutionary motives affect sustainability campaign message persuasiveness

Purpose The growing concern around sustainability highlights the need to change individual consumption behaviour. Using evolutionary theory, the purpose of this paper is to present a framework that demonstrates the process by which a consumer’s ultimate motives (thoughts, emotions, and perceptions that come from the evolutionary motives) impact sustainability campaign message persuasiveness (SCMP). Design/methodology/approach The framework was tested using partial least squares analysis with data from an online survey of 237 consumers. Findings Ultimate motives influence the SCMP through a mediating relationship, via a consumer’s sustainable consumption attitude and behaviour. The perceived sense of urgency around sustainability issues and the consumer’s connection to nature were also identified as key moderators that impact relationships between ultimate motives and consumers’ sustainability attitudes and behaviours. Research limitations/implications Future research could explore the impact of other factors, such as values, social norms, culture and governmental regulations, on individuals’ reactions to sustainability marketing. Practical implications The findings indicate the importance for managers to grasp the multifaceted nature of ultimate motives. By heightening particular ultimate motives, marketers can steer individuals towards sustainable attitudes and behaviours, consequently increasing the probability of favourable reactions to sustainable consumption messages. Originality/value This study addressed the two main limitations of research into SCMP by providing a theoretical grounding and focusing on the drivers of consumer behaviour, instead of campaign messaging aspects (e.g. framing). The empirical analysis, including identifying interactions between ultimate motives, supports the use of evolutionary theory to explain SCMP.

Evolutionary motives in employees’ knowledge behavior when being envied at work

PurposeKnowledge transfer is a crucial ingredient of employee innovation, yet affective work events may disrupt knowledge flow among employees. This study aims to investigate a previously overlooked, yet frequently occurring affective work experience, namely, that of being envied, and examine how perceptions of being envied may drive contrastive knowledge behaviors of sharing and hiding, which subsequently impact employee innovation. The study further examines how the zero-sum game beliefs of the envied individual may moderate these mechanisms.Design/methodology/approachThis study builds on territorial and belongingness theories to delineate the contrastive motivations for knowledge hiding and knowledge sharing. This study tests a moderated mediation model through a multisource survey design involving 225 employees.FindingsThe results support the notion that perceptions of being envied are linked to both knowledge hiding and knowledge sharing; however, the indirect effect of being envied on innovation is observed only through knowledge sharing. The indirect positive link between perceptions of being envied and innovation via knowledge sharing is weakened when the envied employee holds high zero-sum game beliefs.Originality/valueThis study advances knowledge scholarship by identifying and testing the organizationally relevant but largely overlooked antecedent of being envied at work. The results provide useful insights to practitioners on how sharing or hiding knowledge serves as a strategic asset in response to being envied at work and how this may in turn impact employee innovation.

Influence of facial attractiveness on the allocation of attentional resources: Moderating effect of evolutionary motivations

Influence of facial attractiveness on the allocation of attentional resources: Moderating effect of evolutionary motivations

The allure of arrogance: How relationship formation motives enhance consumer preferences for arrogant communications

Recent studies of persuasion have offered an evolutionary perspective of how emotions influence consumer behavior. Yet, within this evolutionary framework, research has been surprisingly limited on how evolutionary motives impact how emotions are processed to influence subsequent behavior. In the current research, the authors explore how differences in romantic motives influence consumer responses to arrogance in persuasive communications. Across five studies, individuals with a relationship formation motive were shown to have more favorable attitudes and higher purchase intentions towards products and brands that emphasize arrogance in their marketing messages. This effect is based on an enhanced self-promotion mindset that emerges when relationship formation motives are salient. Furthermore, a boundary condition related to the consumption environment is identified.

Anti-Natalism from an Evolutionary Psychological Perspective

Although research has investigated both moral psychology and evolutionary motivations behind reproduction, psychological issues at the intersection of these two domains remain relatively unexplored. In this paper, we describe anti-natalism, the ethical position that it is immoral to reproduce (e.g., Benatar 2006), and make a first outline of its potential as an area of psychological research. We note three critical gaps in knowledge: (1) extent of endorsement, (2) predictors or causes of this view, and (3) behavioral consequences of its endorsement. Although this position may seem obscure, we point to its practical relevance in understanding decisions to remain childless and its potential to contribute to a theoretical understanding of the moral processes that shape these decisions.

Age-Related Dysfunctions: Evidence and Relationship with Some Risk Factors and Protective Drugs.

The theories interpreting senescence as a phenomenon favored by natural selection require the existence of specific, genetically determined and regulated mechanisms that cause a progressive age-related increase in mortality. The mechanisms defined in the subtelomere-telomere theory suggest that progressive slackening of cell turnover and decline in cellular functions are determined by the subtelomere-telomere-telomerase system, which causes a progressive "atrophic syndrome" in all organs and tissues. If the mechanisms underlying aging-related dysfunctions are similar and having the same origin, it could be hypothesized that equal interventions could produce similar effects. This article reviews the consequences of some factors (diabetes, obesity/dyslipidemia, hypertension, smoking, moderate use and abuse of alcohol) and classes of drugs [statins, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, sartans] in accelerating and anticipating or in counteracting the process of aging. The evidence is compatible with the programmed aging paradigm and the mechanisms defined by the subtelomere-telomere theory but it has no obvious discriminating value against the theories of non-programmed aging paradigm. However, the existence of mechanisms, determined by the subtelomere-telomere-telomerase system and causing a progressive age-related decline in fitness through gradual cell senescence and cell senescence, is not justifiable without an evolutionary motivation. Their existence is expected by the programmed aging paradigm, while is incompatible with the opposite paradigm.

Evolutionary motives and food behavior modeling in romantic relationships

This research examines the influence of evolutionary motives on the modeling of food behavior. Across three studies, we demonstrate that the evolutionary motives of mate acquisition and mate retention influence relationship partners to model the food behaviors of their eating partners. We show that females, but not males, model the food behavior of an opposite sex eating partner under a mate acquisition evolutionary motive, while males, but not females, model the food behavior of an opposite sex eating partner under a mate retention evolutionary motive. Finally, we demonstrate that neither sex models food behavior under a parenting evolutionary motive. For marketers and policymakers, we offer recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of promotions targeted to couples or families.

Współdziałanie podsystemów języka w perspektywie badań etymologicznych. Znaczenie i rozwój słowiańskich zaimków *vьχakъ i *edьnakъ

The subjects of the article are to discover the origin and meaning of PSl. suffix * -ak- and determiners * v ьχ ak ъ and * edinak ъ /* ed ь nak ъ formed with that suffix as well as to establish evolutionary paths and motivation senses as a result of which function meanings of derivatives of the determiners in question have been specified in Slavic languages. The description of their origin and development plays an important role both in determining the etymology of such words as Czech vsak and jednak , and in examining theoretical issues on depronominal function words. The article offers some methodological solutions for examining the history of contemporary metatextual and metapredicative expressions. The study of the origin of the linguistic phenomena connected with the semantic development of the object level of language into the metatextual level requires not only considering the characteristics of these expressions at the relevant lexical level, but also in interaction with morphological and syntactic levels, and perhaps the phonological level as well (cf. questions of apocope and phonological changes related to the transition of given expressions to the class of enclitics). Etymological research, in special cases, should be supported by both the analysis of language systems lower than the examined one (which is in fact the basis of the contemporary etymological observations) as well as an analysis of language systems higher than the examined one, which is a special procedure in etymological description of conjunctions, particles, metapredicative operators etc. Further syntactic and textual analysis in etymological research can shed different light on the etymology of metatextual phenomena.

Toward a Better Understanding of Self-Construal Theory: An Agency View of the Processes of Self-Construal

This article offers a novel perspective on self-construal theory. Self-construal concerns how individuals understand who they are in relation to the broad set of cultural influences in which they live. We look at the nature and antecedents of self-construal, and characterize it as a self-process, rather than self-knowledge. Integrating work from the literature on social and evolutionary psychology, and philosophy, we suggest that the differences between independent and interdependent self-construal are best understood from a self-agency perspective. This concerns how people assess whether they are the causes of an action and, if so, whether their causal role depends on other people. We introduce and discuss the roles of 3 different modalities of agency involved in self-agency assessment: implicit (sensorimotor), intermediate (self-related affordances), and explicit (reflective) self-agency. We offer a conceptual model on how self-agency relates to power, evolutionary motivations and to social and cultural affordances, in the formation of, and interaction with, different types of dominant independent and interdependent self-construals.

Toward a more holistic understanding of filicide: A multidisciplinary analysis of 32 years of U.S. arrest data

Filicide is the killing of one or more children by a parent, stepparent, or other parental figure. This study presents the first comprehensive analysis of U.S. filicide, drawn from 94,146 filicide arrests tabulated over a 32-year period in the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR). Filicides comprised 15% of all murders during this period. Modal victim age was less than one year old. One-third of the victims were under a year old; over two-thirds of the victims were age six or less. Fathers were as likely as mothers to kill infants. The mean age of offenders was 32 years with a mode of 22 years, and nearly three-quarters were aged 18–45. Female offenders were notably younger than their male counterparts. Black (or African American) offenders were significantly overrepresented in filicide compared to Whites. Most common killing methods included using hands and feet, strangulation, beating, asphyxiation, drowning, and defenestration. Stepparents were not at higher risk of filicide than genetic parents, but were twice as likely to kill using firearms. Synthesizing these results with studies from other fields, we propose three transdisciplinary, empirically informed filicide categories primarily defined by effects of (1) psychopathology associated with neurotransmitter disturbances, (2) gender and sex hormones, and (3) evolutionary motives. Approaching filicide using this proposed hypothetical framework for future research may help identify at-risk populations and improve prevention and treatment.

基于层次性的企业专利创造能力演化路径及其动力研究

基于层次性的企业专利创造能力演化路径及其动力研究

Fundamental motives: How evolutionary needs influence consumer behavior

Can we better understand modern consumer behavior by examining its links to our ancestral past? We consider the underlying motives for consumption and choice from an evolutionary perspective. We review evidence that deep-seated evolutionary motives continue to influence much modern behavior, albeit not always in obvious or conscious ways. These fundamental motives include: (1) evading physical harm, (2) avoiding disease, (3) making friends, (4) attaining status, (5) acquiring a mate, (6) keeping a mate, and (7) caring for family. We discuss how, why, and when these motives influence behavior, highlighting that many consumer choices ultimately function to help fulfill one or more of these evolutionary needs. An important implication of this framework is that a person's preferences, behaviors, and decision processes change in predictable ways depending on which fundamental motive is currently active. We discuss how consideration of evolutionary motives provides fertile ground for future consumer research, while also helping build bridges between consumer behavior, evolutionary biology, and other social sciences.

Evolutionary Neuroscience and Human Motivation in Organizations

Evolutionary Neuroscience and Human Motivation in Organizations

Does moral cleansing moderate the effect of evolutionary altruism on helping intention? An exploratory study.

There is strong evidence for social evolutionary motivations for helping (e.g., reciprocal altruism) and also growing support for the influence of the social cognitive theory of moral cleansing on prosociality. Where the former motivation is interpersonal, the latter is intrapersonal. This experimental study hypothesized that, in addition to main effects of evolutionary altruism and moral cleansing on helping intention, an interaction would occur between these theoretical motivations. Using three situational helping scenarios as dependent measures, the effect of participants’ morally-valenced recalled behavior (moral/immoral/achievement/failure) and the effect of their social proximity to a helping target (cousin/colleague/stranger) on helping intention was determined. Overall, 616 Australian participants (90.1% female) completed the online experiment. Two-way ANOVA demonstrated a consistent main effect of social proximity on helping intention across all three helping scenarios, supporting evolutionary social psychological explanations for helping. However, instead of moral self-regulation effects, moral identity consistency effects were induced by the moral behavior recall manipulation. A main effect of behaviour recall on helping intention occurred, with moral recall increasing helping intention. The problem of theoretical ambiguity regarding moral identity consistency and moral self-regulation is discussed, as is the useful role of null result publications in informing effective experimental design.

When human nature confronts the need for a global environmental ethics.

Absent from many studies about climate-change is the motivational connection to human nature. All but gone from the public and natural sciences discourse is any rationale that the environment is not actually the problem; rather, it is human behavior. The predictable result of focusing conservation and environmental research on effects (e.g., climatechange), is avoidance of their ultimate causes. This article argues that this is a form of mass social-institutional denial. People must consume, but they consume in excess for a variety of social and cultural reasons that are simply an extension of human nature. Technological fixes will do nothing more than postpone “overshoot and collapse” by 3050 years, as recent studies show. Denying the origins and complexity of human motivation to consume, while focusing institutional research and public attention on ecological disturbances that exclude human beings is entirely doomed to failure as the environmental measures of the last 50 years demonstrate. Regrettably, 50 years of research has done little to improve the planet and the long-term security of humanity. Studies suggest that the only approach to developing an environmentally sustainable global society will involve the development of a conservation ethics consistent with our evolutionary motives, which evolutionary psychologists could facilitate.

Ultimate Answers to Proximate Questions: The Evolutionary Motivations behind Tattoos and Body Piercings in Popular Culture

Numerous studies have found that piercing and tattooing the body is an increasingly prevalent trend in modern popular culture; however, this is not only a modern practice. Evidence of various forms of body ornamentation has been found in human societies dating back thousands of years. Although prior research has focused on the potential relationships between various personality traits and the likelihood of piercing or tattooing the body, few have approached this topic from an evolutionary perspective. For instance, the general motivations for getting tattoos and piercings have tended to fall into the same three categories for hundreds of years: (a) a symbol of an important past event, love, or friendship, (b) group membership, and/or (c) a marker of individuality. We argue that these motivations are simply proximate behaviors for an ultimate evolutionary reason: the perpetuation of one's genes. In this article, we propose two new theories about the origins of body ornamentation. First, in our “human canvas” hypothesis, we propose a link between body ornamentation and the human species' historical use of symbolic thought. Second, in our “upping the ante” hypothesis, we suggest that the steady rise in popularity of tattooing and piercing in Western culture has come about due to larger population densities and advancements in healthcare, which has led individuals to seek new and unique displays of fitness (i.e., body ornamentation). We then conclude with proximate examples in popular culture to display the proposed ultimate evolutionary reasoning behind body ornamentation.

Presence and general principles of brain function

Recent developments in general theories of cognition and brain function make it possible to consider the concept of presence from a new perspective, based in general principles of brain function. The importance of interaction with reality for the development and function of the brain and human cognition is increasingly emphasized. The brain is explained as implementing a generative model of the current environment. Whether this environment is real or virtual does not matter. Mental simulations are created for whatever one interacts with, when possible. This view provides a basis for relating human experiences in virtual environments to several theories that explain cognition and brain function on many levels, from ultimate evolutionary motivations to plausible neural implementations. The purpose of this paper is not to provide yet another definition of presence but to suggest explanations of phenomena commonly related to presence, with a basis in general principles of brain function. Such principles are employed to explain how, and why, interaction with our environment, and internalization of objects and tools therein, play an essential role in human cognition. This provides a rich basis for further analysis of how central aspects of presence, such as breaks in presence or the perceptual illusion of non-mediation, may work on a fundamental level. More general descriptions of such phenomena have advantages such as being easier to relate to new contexts and technologies, and opening up for additional inspiration and confirmation from other disciplines such as cognitive neuroscience. In addition to an account of general principles for brain function and a discussion about the concept of presence in light of these, this paper also relates this discussion to a number of previous accounts of presence, and to practical implications and applications for interaction design.

Handling time and the evolution of caching behavior

Food caching is widespread among several animal species. Few studies have proposed that time should affect the evolution of caching behavior, especially under foraging time constraints. Nevertheless, to date, there has been no analytical support to the handling time hypothesis. In the present article, we use an analytical model to show that caching behavior may evolve as the result of shorter time caching relative to eating. We evaluate caching behavior under 3 fitness objectives (or environmental scenarios): maximizing energy consumed, maximizing and balancing energy consumed, and maximizing energy consumed under risk of predation. Our analyses reveal that under all 3 fitness objectives, caching behavior can evolve when caching time is shorter than eating time, to allow the animal to free up time during the period when food is plentiful and postpone time spent to the period when food is scarce and time is less valuable. That effect may be called search time reallocation, and it is still prevalent even if food decays. Our model provides predictions that can be field tested, adds to the debate of time and perishability hypotheses, and invites researchers to direct their focus toward understanding the evolutionary motives of caching behavior.

The Dichotomy in Degree Correlation of Biological Networks

Most complex networks from different areas such as biology, sociology or technology, show a correlation on node degree where the possibility of a link between two nodes depends on their connectivity. It is widely believed that complex networks are either disassortative (links between hubs are systematically suppressed) or assortative (links between hubs are enhanced). In this paper, we analyze a variety of biological networks and find that they generally show a dichotomous degree correlation. We find that many properties of biological networks can be explained by this dichotomy in degree correlation, including the neighborhood connectivity, the sickle-shaped clustering coefficient distribution and the modularity structure. This dichotomy distinguishes biological networks from real disassortative networks or assortative networks such as the Internet and social networks. We suggest that the modular structure of networks accounts for the dichotomy in degree correlation and vice versa, shedding light on the source of modularity in biological networks. We further show that a robust and well connected network necessitates the dichotomy of degree correlation, suggestive of an evolutionary motivation for its existence. Finally, we suggest that a dichotomous degree correlation favors a centrally connected modular network, by which the integrity of network and specificity of modules might be reconciled.

Dominance and Competition

We propose and test two possible explanations of envy and its opposite, gloating. One explanation views them as a learning process, just as regret and rejoice are in the private domain: envy is the social correspondent of regret. The other explanation traces envy back to the natural tendency of individuals to seek higher positions in the social ranking, that is a dominant position, a tendency with very strong evolutionary motives. We show experimentally that these two functional reasons for envy coexist. Competition is the product of the desire for dominance, rather than the artificial output of social arrangements. (JEL: D12, D87)