MULTIVARIATE ASPECTS of TESTING THE SAVANNAH HYPOTHESIS of SHOPPING

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MULTIVARIATE ASPECTS of TESTING THE SAVANNAH
HYPOTHESIS of SHOPPING

• CHARLES DENNIS,
• TAMIRA KING and ADRIAN WOODS

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AGENDA

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

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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)

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Life is just a rather complicated form of
chemistry (Gribbin, 2002 xvii)

• This does not mean absence of free will
• Free will is guided as much by emotion as by logic

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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

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SAVANNAH Major 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)

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THE KENYAN RIFT VALLEYThe cradle of human
beginnings

• Source Winston 2002

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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)

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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

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ATTRACTING A MATE

• Females carry the baby
• Males can father many
• Females are more selective in choice of mate

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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

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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)

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SAVANNAH LIFE

• Females are based around the camp
• Males try to protect the group

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FEMALE and MALE PSYCHOLOGY

• Females tend to be Empathisers
• Social skills
• Communicators
• Males tend to be Systemisers
• Spatial skills
• Mechanical aptitude
• (Barron-Cohen, 2004)

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SAVANNAH and SHOPPING

• In hunter-gather societies
• Females do the gathering -Comparison shopping
• Males do the hunting Money

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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)

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India Knights 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

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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)

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PIERCEBROSNAN

• MY TOP SHOPPING TIP? MAKE IT QUICK
• Sunday Times Style
• 16 March 2003
• In association with
• HARVEY NICHOLS

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CHALLENGE

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

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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)

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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)

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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

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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)

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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 Usuniers (2000) scale

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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 Woods argument

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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

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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)

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METHOD

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

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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)

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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

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SYSTEMISING

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

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SAMPLE

• STAGE 1 185, mainly UK undergraduates
• STAGE 2 385, mainly non-UK Masters

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SHOPPING STYLE SCALE

• Scale reliability alpha
• STAGE 1 0.86
• STAGE 2 0.77

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SHOPPING STYLE SCALEAlpha gt0.75 for

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SHOPPING STYLE RESULTS

• Mean scale values

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EMPATHISING and SHOPPING STYLE

• Mean values on shopping style scale
• High empathisers 33
• Low empathisers 29

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SYSTEMISING and SHOPPING STYLE

• Mean values on shopping style scale
• High systemisers 29
• Low systemisers 33

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CULTURE and SHOPPING STYLE

• Mean values on shopping style scale

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GENDER EQUALITY and SHOPPING STYLE

• Mean values on shopping style scale

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HIERARCHY of SEGMENTS on shopping style
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H1 SAVANNAH HYPOTHESIS

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H2 EMPATHISERS and SYSTEMISERS

• (

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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)

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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

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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?

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MULTIVARIATE ASPECTS of TESTING THE SAVANNAH
HYPOTHESIS of SHOPPING

• CHARLES DENNIS,
• TAMIRA KING and ADRIAN WOODS