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MULTIVARIATE ASPECTS of TESTING THE SAVANNAH HYPOTHESIS of SHOPPING

MULTIVARIATE ASPECTS of TESTING THE SAVANNAH HYPOTHESIS of SHOPPING. CHARLES DENNIS , TAMIRA KING and ADRIAN WOODS. AGENDA. Evolutionary psychology Savannah hypothesis Male and female shopping styles Challenging the Savannah Hypothesis Cultural context Gender equality

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MULTIVARIATE ASPECTS of TESTING THE SAVANNAH HYPOTHESIS of SHOPPING

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  1. MULTIVARIATE ASPECTS of TESTING THE SAVANNAH HYPOTHESIS of SHOPPING CHARLES DENNIS, TAMIRA KING and ADRIAN WOODS

  2. AGENDA • Evolutionary psychology • Savannah hypothesis • Male and female shopping styles • Challenging the Savannah Hypothesis • Cultural context • Gender equality • Hypotheses testing

  3. ‘Life is just a rather complicated form of chemistry’(Gribbin, 2002: xvii) E.g. ‘Adrenalin rush’ reflex is associated with: • Emotion (fear) • Physiology (heart rate) • Action (fight or flight)

  4. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGYWe like (positive emotion) the things that make us more likely to survive or reproduce, e.g.: • Food • Drink • Sex • Safety and security • Socialising • Power • Shopping

  5. SAVANNAHMajor ice age over 4 m years ago: • Forest retreated • Many tree-dwelling apes died • Some found ways of living in the open savannah • The more resourceful ones were more likely to survive and reproduce(Winston, 2002)

  6. THE KENYAN RIFT VALLEY‘The cradle of human beginnings’ Source: Winston 2002

  7. THE SAVANNAH HYPOTHESIS • ‘Selection has favoured preferences, motivations and cognitions to explore and settle in environments abundant with the resources needed to sustain life’(Buss, 1999: p. 83) • Evidence: preferences for natural (rather than human-made) environments(Orians, 1980; 1986) • E.g. preferences for natural daylight, water features and greenery in shopping centres

  8. ATTRACTING A MATE • Females carry the baby • Males can father many • Females are more selective in choice of mate • Females choose a mate who is a good provider: • Fast • Quick thinking • Powerful • Good hunter • Will father strong children • Evidence: cross-cultural similarities in mating behaviour(Buss, 1989)

  9. SAVANNAH LIFE • Females are based around the camp • Males try to protect the group

  10. FEMALE and MALE PSYCHOLOGY • Females tend to be Empathisers: • Social skills • Communicators • Males tend to be Systemisers • Spatial skills • Mechanical aptitude (Barron-Cohen, 2004)

  11. SAVANNAH and SHOPPING In hunter-gather societies: • Females do the gathering -Comparison shopping • Males do the hunting –Money

  12. FEMALE SHOPPING STYLE • Ritual of seeking and comparing • Imagining and envisioning merchandise in use • Tally up the pros and cons • Take pride in their ability(Underhill, 1999: 116)

  13. India Knight’s new book on the art of shopping. After a lifetime of research, she tracks down the most glamorous food, drink, beauty and bargains Source: Sunday Times Style, 19 October 2003

  14. MALE SHOPPING STYLE • Men go straight for what they want in a purposeful way • But US men do take a pride in shopping for (e.g.) cars and computers(and women are purposeful for those products)

  15. PIERCEBROSNAN ‘MY TOP SHOPPING TIP? MAKE IT QUICK’ Sunday Times Style 16 March 2003 In association with HARVEY NICHOLS

  16. CHALLENGE • The evolutionary approach can be challenged if cultures can be shown to converge

  17. CHALLENGE • The evolutionary approach can be challenged if cultures can be shown to converge • ‘To the extent that traditional sexual division between wage labor and domestic labor disappears and women and men become similarly distributed into paid occupations, men and women should converge in their psychological attributes’(Eagly and Wood, 2002)

  18. PREVIOUS QUALITATIVE STUDY Cross-cultural mini-scenarios from Masters ‘marketing’ students at 3 UK universities • 14 different groups / national cultures • 17 European judges, 25 Asian, 2 African • Shopping styles very similar across cultures • Retail in high-context cultures tend to be more bazaar or market than in low-context cultures (Dennis, 2004)

  19. JAPAN vs. USA • Far away: • Geographically and in • Cultural background JAPAN: • ‘Females fussy about product, price, quality, brand. Seek bargains, shop for satisfaction. Take time. • Males emphasise function’

  20. GENDER EQUALITY The evolutionary approach can be challenged if: • Psychological traits of females and males are • Different in cultures where gender equality is lower • Similar in cultures where gender equality is higher • Gender equality of countries has been measured (WEF, 2005)

  21. HIGH vs LOW CONTEXT CULTURES • People in ‘HIGH-CONTEXT’ cultures: • Use personality and social setting in communicating • Decision-making takes longer because it uses information that is less tangible • People in ‘LOW-CONTEXT’ cultures: • Take explicit meanings at face value • Decisions rely on fewer sources of information and thus tend to be quicker Measured by Usunier’s (2000) scale

  22. HIGH vs LOW CONTEXT CULTURES If shopping styles did vary across cultures, we would expect: • High-context cultures to be associated with more social, time consuming, feminine shopping styles • Low-context with more transaction orientated, faster, masculine ones I.e. the opposite of Eagly and Wood’s argument

  23. THE SAVANNAH HYPOTHESIS OF SHOPPING H1 Male and female shopping styles are evolutionarily determined H1a The differences between shopping styles Reflect the gatherer and hunter roles H1b Shopping style will not be positively associated with gender equality H1c Any cultural differences in shopping styles will be in the direction: Higher context cultures More feminine shopping style

  24. EMPATHISERS and SYSTEMISERS H2 Empathisers and Systemisers shopping styles are different H2a Empathisers shop with a Feminine style H2b Systemisers shop with a masculine style (Based on Baron-Cohen, 2004)

  25. METHOD • Structured questionnaire, 5-point Likert scales: • Multi-cultural sample • Mainly Marketing students • Shopping style • Empathising • Systemising

  26. SHOPPING STYLE • I take a pride in my ability as a shopper • I visit more shops than I need to • The social aspect of shopping is important • I try to complete my shopping in the shortest possible time (scale reversed)

  27. EMPATHISING • I really enjoy caring for others • It upsets me if I am late for a meeting with a friend • It upsets me to see people cry

  28. SYSTEMISING • I can fix electrical wiring myself • I like watching documentaries • I find maps easy to read

  29. SAMPLE • STAGE 1: 185, mainly UK undergraduates • STAGE 2: 385, mainly non-UK Masters

  30. SHOPPING STYLE SCALE Scale reliability alpha: • STAGE 1: 0.86 • STAGE 2: 0.77

  31. SHOPPING STYLE SCALEAlpha >0.75 for:

  32. SHOPPING STYLE RESULTS Mean scale values

  33. EMPATHISING and SHOPPING STYLE Mean values on shopping style scale: • High empathisers: 33 • Low empathisers 29

  34. SYSTEMISING and SHOPPING STYLE Mean values on shopping style scale: • High systemisers: 29 • Low systemisers: 33

  35. Mean values on shopping style scale: CULTURE and SHOPPING STYLE

  36. Mean values on shopping style scale: GENDER EQUALITY and SHOPPING STYLE

  37. HIERARCHY of SEGMENTS on shopping style

  38. H1 SAVANNAH HYPOTHESIS

  39. ( H2 EMPATHISERS and SYSTEMISERS

  40. CONCLUSIONS • The scale for Shopping Style is reliable and useful • Shopping styles are reasonably consistently different across a range of national cultures • The styles reflect the hunter gatherer roles • There are slight differences in shopping styles between high- and low-context cultures (for males)

  41. CONCLUSIONS cont • Differences between high and low gender equality countries are in the opposite direction to that for rejection of the Savannah Hypothesis • The Savannah Hypothesis of shopping cannot be rejected

  42. FURTHER RESEARCH • Female shopping styles do not vary across cultures – i.e. likely to be evolutionarily determined So why do male styles seem to have some cultural content?

  43. MULTIVARIATE ASPECTS of TESTING THE SAVANNAH HYPOTHESIS of SHOPPING CHARLES DENNIS, TAMIRA KING and ADRIAN WOODS

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