1. Applications of Evolutionary Psychology in Marketing to Men
The gender-related differences in the behaviors of consumption were something familiar for
marketing people since the early ages of marketing. There were some exclusive cues, tricks that
always been successful for men as well as there were others for women. Although the applications
worked in practice, there was a level of mystery in terms of exactly how these applications differ and
why. Most of the time, the source of gender differences among consumers are explained in social
context (for example the learned behaviors and the different socialization processes they
experience). However; this theory can no completely explain how the gender differences in
consumer behaviors were consistently similar in cross cultural studies.
According to the Saad and Gill (2000) evolutionary psychology seeks to understand this question;
“How does a particular behavior, cognition, emotion and/or perception constitute a functional
solution to an adaptive problem in our evolutionary past”. This means, this field tries to explain
“why” a particular behavior pattern exists rather than how it
operates. Exploring the underlying reasons of the consumer
behavior dynamics is very important since it enables us to create
new service models, advertisement concepts that work.
One of the key findings of evolutionary psychology
The fundamental
rule of evolutionary
psychology is; behaviors
that lead to reproductive
success are rewarded
evolutionary.
approach is the universally consistent differences in mate
preferences between women and men. Buss (1989) found that,
men tend o value physical attractiveness and youth in their mates
more significantly than intellectuality or financial resources.
According to the study, the women that males evolutionally tend to become sexually interested have
specific cues that give sings of fertility. Since in the evolutionary psychology, behaviors that lead to
reproductive success are rewarded evolutionary; men have a natural mechanism to capture that
cues.

2. These cues are said to be universally similar regardless of culture; such as unwrinkled skin,
bright eyes, full red lips, glossy hair, and lack of facial blemishes and facial hair. Although it sounds
odd at the beginning, we can observe all the culturally accepted “attractive” women have these
features.
So, how can we reflect this finding to the real life marketing world? For a long time,
advertisers use this theory to gather male’s attention by using sexual appeal in advertising. From the
attention component of the mind ware concept, we know that the stimuli that is significant for the
organism easily grabs the automatic attention and in this case, the stimuli is these fertility ques.
Advertisers consistently give importance to these fertility cues in the process of defining female
attractiveness and age of the female models is usually young.
Another very interesting fertility cue is the waist-to-tip ratio of women. As evolutionary
psychologists explain, the .70 waist-to-hip ratio suggests that a woman is more fertile and the
probability to have many health children is relatively high for this ratio. Dixson (2010), made several
cross cultural studies to find out the most appealing ratio all over the world and regardless from the
culture, the golden rate of .70 was chosen as the most appealing one. In the modern world; when we
look at the Playboy’s current standards or famous attractive women’s ratios (like Marilyn Monroe)
we see this golden ratio consistently. It could be an interesting further research to analyze whether
the global trend that values thin body (which is popular among women) has changed this ratio or not.

3. Another empirically proven hypothesis according to this Saad’s study (2000) is that men tend
to involve short term mating more often than women. Likewise, when we analyze the print
advertisements that target men (see the below ones), we can see that the women give the
impression of a short term engagement rather than a glance of a romantic relationship. Linking with
the attention concept, this kind of stimuli evokes more positive emotions for men ( in which the
situation is completely the opposite for women) therefore it easily grabs the automatic attention.
Moreover, man and women also have different attitudes towards the group presence on the
advertisement stimulus. For example, the presence of a female alone evokes more positive emotions
among men than the presence of both male and female models. On the other hand, Symons (1979)
found out that anecdotal placing both male and female models in the context of the advertisement
happens to be a better use of appeal in advertising to women.
So, why do the below advertisements (that obviously target men) contain both male and
female models? Evolutionary psychology answers that question with the following concept.
When we look at the mate preferences of women, we see that the story is fairly different.
Women value things like social status and financial resources much more than appearance. In an
evolutionary context, this behavior can be a modern version of the competition among men to
gather the resources. At those times, it was survival for men to take risks to gather resources
because this trait was highly valued by females and gaining a status meant having a productive mate.
When we look at men’s hobbies like American football or Formula 1, we see that these games have a
competition based structure and rely on risk taking principle to obtain the resources (which is in
these cases to be the winner).

4. Apparently, this is still valid. Buss (1989) found that men have a great motivation and
tendency to take risks for resources and status, just like the relationship that women have with youth
and appearance. When a male content is placed in the advertisements that target men, we can see
that the male character gives a status sign and has this masculine and strong look. Advertisers use
this kind of a character near the female model in the advertisement because almost in every cultural
context, men want to have these characters. This placement of a perfect couple (a man with the
status and an attractive woman) is the perfect frame for men regardless of social attachments. As a
result, this characters grab much more attention by men and they engagement rate with the brand is
higher. When we see advertisements that have only male characters, we still observe the emphasis
on power and masculinity.
Another evolutionary difference between men and women is about the cognitive processes
of elaborating a message. Historically men were hunting and females were mostly gathering food
from the familiar area or they were in charge of the caves. Evolutionary psychologists claim that both
genders developed the adapted mechanisms to solve the problems they faced in these activities. As a
result, males are said to be specifically good at space relations and mental rotations, while females
are better at location and object memory. Well, how can we link that finding with a solid marketing
implication? According to Meyers-Levy (1991), male and female participants differ in terms of their
processing strategies. While women can engage in message details more comprehensively, men are
less motivated to engage in detailed message elaboration. Advertisers focus on these characteristics
while designing the content and concept of the advertisements to gather men’s attention to the
content and to make the content more memorable. In the advertisements that target men, we see a
level of minimalism and its main message is dominant and clear. Processing the message with the
automatic attention is quite easy.

5. On the other hand; the advertisements for women are more detailed, contain a level of script
and processing the message requires controlled attention.
Evolutionary psychology has many other hypotheses for consumer behavior field. Saad and
Gill (2000) analyzed some of the other differences among gender in terms of emotions, facial
expressions of emotions, environmental preferences, universal grammar in languages, parent-offspring
relationships, and sibling rivalry and found out that these behaviors also have all roots with
evolutionary psychology. Personally, I don’t think that all these behaviors should be only explained
by evolutionary psychology. It makes sense that social sciences like anthropology, political science,
psychology and sociology also have an inevitable effect on consumer behavior. However, taking into
account the perceptual, cognitive and motivational mechanisms underlying these behaviors can help
us to have a holistic understanding in terms of how the consumers mind work.

6. References
Bus s, D. (1989). Sex differences in human mate preferences: Evolutionary hypotheses
tested in 37 cultures. Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Meyers -Levy, J., & Ma he shwaran, D. (1991). Exploring differences in males’
a nd females’ processing strategies. Journal of Consumer Research, 18, 63–
70.
Saad, G. & Gi ll, T. (2000). Applications of evolutionary psychology in marketing.
Psychology & Marketing, 17.
Singh, D., Dixson, B. J., Jessop, T. S., Morgan, B. B., & Dixson, A. F. (2010). Cross-cultural consensus for waist– hip ratio and
women's attractiveness. Evolution and Human Behavior
Symons , D. (1979). The evolution of human sexuality. New York: Oxford University
Pres s .
http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=7903
http://www.scienceofrelationships.com/home/2012/3/22/curves-that-drive-the-mad-men-mad.html