Mating and marketing

David M. Buss and Pete Foley

Journal of Business Research, 2020, vol. 120, issue C, 492-497

Abstract: Mating motives, informed by an evolutionary perspective, are central to marketing and consumer behavior. Humans have an evolved menu of mating strategies that vary along a temporal continuum anchored by long-term committed mating (e.g., marriage) and short-term mating (e.g., one-night stands, brief affairs). Men and women, although similar in some ways, differ in their psychology of short-term and long-term mating in some respects. The proposed framework yields a four-quadrant matrix useful for more gender-specific and mating strategy-specific marketing—women's long-term, men's long-term, women's short-term, and men's short-term. Mating psychology within these quadrants include mate choice copying, error management, the sexual over-perception bias, cues to sexual exploitation, good-dad mate preferences, temporal discounting, and the psychology of opportunity costs. Discussion focuses on gender-specific marketing, market segmentation, implicit versus explicit mating cues, the importance of context, consumer's long-term interests, and the power of attention-grabbing mating cues for non-mating related products and consumer behavior.

Keywords: Mating; Marketing; Mate preferences; Sex differences; Gender-specific marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:120:y:2020:i:c:p:492-497

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.01.034

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