Marketers know that a key element in many purchases is to signal something about the buyer. A Toyota Prius, for example, says that its owner is concerned about the environment. Expensive luxury brands let the world know the buyer has…

Evolutionary psychology suggests that we humans are all about conspicuous consumption. Displaying expensive or hard to find items raises our status and may suggest a higher degree of "fitness" as a mate (i.e., health and resources).…

In Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior, author and evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller spends a lot of time discussion the "Big Five" personality traits, two of which are agreeableness and aggressiveness. These traits…

I've written a few times about the effects of pictures of attractive women on decision-making by men. In Bikinis, Babes, and Buying, we learned that guys who looked at pictures of bikini-clad women made impulsive decisions. In A…

In yet another indication that human olfactory responses can completely bypass our conscious thought process, a study at Florida State University has shown that the natural scent of an ovulating woman can boost the testosterone levels of…

Marketable business ideas often have two key characteristics: simplicity, and a way of categorizing products, brands, or companies. The Boston Matrix, for example, launched armies of strategy consultants who neatly fit businesses into…

If you are human, you are subject to temptation. In a religious context, temptation is an invitation to sin, i.e., to break the established rules of that particular faith. Even without the influence of religion, society has both formal…

It's no big surprise that our brains can process odors without the intervention of our conscious minds, but a study published earlier this year showed just how sophisticated that process can be. Specifically, brain scans showed that…

In Mirrors and Images, I speculated that the presence of images such as a picture of Christ in a church or those omnipresent portraits of the leaders of totalitarian states might influence the behavior of people in their presence. Now, the…

Some of my more popular posts over time have been those dealing with selling to two different customer groups: spendthrifts, who spend money freely, and tightwads, who don't part with their money easily. (See Five Keys to Selling to…