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Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior |  | Author: Geoffrey Miller
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
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Seller: leeslibrary
Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 323013
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.5
ISBN: 0670020621
Dewey Decimal Number: 339.47
EAN: 9780670020621
ASIN: 0670020621
Publication Date: May 14, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A leading evolutionary psychologist probes the hidden instincts behind our working, shopping, and spending
Evolutionary psychology-the compelling science of human nature-has clarified the prehistoric origins of human behavior and influenced many fields ranging from economics to personal relationships. In Spent Geoffrey Miller applies this revolutionary science's principles to a new domain: the sensual wonderland of marketing and status seeking that we call American consumer culture. Starting with the basic notion that the goods and services we buy unconsciously advertise our biological potential as mates and friends, Miller examines the hidden factors that dictate our choices in everything from lipstick to cars, from the magazines we read to the music we listen to. With humor and insight, Miller analyzes an array of product choices and deciphers what our decisions say about ourselves, giving us access to a new way of understanding-and improving-our behaviors. Like Freakonomics or The Tipping Point, Spent is a bold and revelatory book that illuminates the unseen logic behind the chaos of consumerism and suggests new ways we can become happier consumers and more responsible citizens.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
An interesting interpretation of consumer behavior and critique of contemporary marketing August 10, 2010
Matthew Buckley-Golder (Toronto, ON Canada)
This is an interesting book that combines Evolutionary Psychology (EP) with marketing to offer a different explanation of why we buy what we buy. I think the author correctly points out that the issues he raises here are under-appreciated or not even recognized in traditional marketing theory.
It is far more slanted toward EP than marketing, though -- spending a lot of time to explain concepts in EP and then making the connection with marketing. It's a refreshing take on the genre.
In a number of places, I did find myself questioning his conclusions, though. I tried to be as honest as possible about my own motivations in buying things and didn't find a fit with what he was telling me. But that may be OK -- after all, he is talking about biological motivation and survival of the fittest and not anything rational or necessarily conscious.
If you are new to the topic and want a really entertaining trifecta, take these three books together:
- "Spent" (this book)
- "All Marketers Are Liars" by Seth Godin
- "Great Apes" by Will Self
You will never see the consumerist world in the same way again after those three :)
 Interesting ideas, poorly presented July 22, 2010
Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is an exploration of consumption from the standpoint of evolutionary psychology. Miller is an author and marketing consultant as well as an evolutionary psychology researcher. In this book, he argues that aspects of conspicuous consumption may bring about reproductive advantage, and are thus favored in human evolution. Marketers may use these traits to encourage increased sales. In the first part of the book, Miller argues that human evolutionary psychology can explain many facets of consumption and overconsumption. He then identifies six dimensions of human psychology that vary across individuals and predict character, capabilities, and behavior: general intelligence, openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness, stability, and extraversion. In the second part of the book, Miller discusses some of these traits in detail, and the relationship between the individual traits and consumerism. In the final part of the book, he explores alternative ways that humans can display the traits while escaping the trap of consumerism. The book includes a list of references for further reading, grouped by topic.
While this book has some interesting ideas that are well worth contemplating, I found Miller's presentation of the topics quite off-putting, as well as carelessly stated or inconsistent in places and simply tossed together without much thought for reality in the last section on recommendations. Miller is highly opinionated and often tucks in rants about his personal preferences instead of relying on facts to make his point. For instance, he takes no pains to avoid insulting entire groups of people or professions to the point of libel, such as when he states "there are plenty of open-minded novelty seekers who love strange ideas and experiences, but who are not very bright. They constitute the market for fantasy novels, self-help books, nutraceuticals, facial piercings, music by Enya, degrees in nonevolutionary psychology, and every product labeled 'homeopathic'." His logic is at times implied, for good reason, namely, stating some claims explicitly would take him out of bounds: "...marketing's power is quite decentralized. There is no unified conspiracy, no secret Masonic Temple, to perpetuate capitalism, consumerism, patriarchy, heterosexism, racism, or general mass stupidity and apathy. The World Trade Organization is just 630 folks working in a five-story office building at 154 Rue de Lausanne in Geneva."
When introducing the 6 dimensions of human personality, Miller states that they are normally distributed across the population, yet "males and females have different average levels of agreeableness...the distribution of male agreeableness overlaps substantially with the distribution of female agreeableness...Nation, region, language, culture, socioeconomic status, class, and education level may predict consumer behavior mainly because they are correlated with some of the Central Six traits." A more thorough discussion of the normal distribution of the traits is greatly needed in this case, because it's not at all clear how traits that are normally distributed across the human population would be predicted to differ systematically enough to cause behavioral differences across gender, nations, culture, socioeconomic status, education level, etc. But Miller doesn't bother to explain such apparent statistical complications.
It's hard to tell where Miller is being serious in the final section on recommendations. At one point, he suggests that people could avoid the perils of consumption as a means of displaying their personality traits by having their trait scores tattooed on their foreheads--was this supposed to be a joke, or was Miller writing under the influence of behavior changing substances? He doesn't quite make it clear whether the tattoo proposal was to be taken seriously, or was just presented as an amusing tongue-in-cheek suggestion. Overall, while this book contains some interesting discussion about some theories of human evolutionary psychology and how they might explain some consumer behavior, there must be some more informative, better written material out there for those who truly want to learn about the subject.
Spent - diminishing returns May 4, 2010
Kenneth C. Doud (Los Olivos, Ca)
The author starts out swinging in this polemic of Western Civilization's increasing gap between the instincts and responses people developed during the hunter/gatherer stage and our gadget ridden, convenience oriented society now. The key premise is that we've always had these drives to display, to the fellow members of our society, the traits that make us look like good people to know or mate with. Mr. Miller breaks these down into what he calls "The Central Six". These he explains quite well from an evolutionary psychology perspective, and this part of the book is very interesting. After that, he starts giving us advice. This is where things fell apart for me, as most of the advice didn't need the preceeding explanation to be credible - it all sounds like common sense to me. Evolution is a very tricky thing to predict and/or speculate upon because it is easy for idealism to intrude and we come up with naive, Pollyanna interpretations of nature. It is possible to speculate that the tendency to murder is the product of evolution, as well as altruism and collaboration. Mr. Miller winds up offering advice reminsicent of "Baba Ram Das" or Alan Watts in the context of our complex environment. By using speculations drawn from a study of the evolution of behavior to validate his conclusions about how we "should" be, he introduces a standard that could also be used to validate hoarding, rape, or theft, as any of those trait might be the ones theat assure survival at a particular moment in time.
 The Mating Mind: Part II April 7, 2010
Capuzzo Michele (Verona, Italy)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Geoffrey Miller again doesn't disappoint, and his recent book Spent represents the natural result of the outstanding previous book "The Mating Mind".
Maybe not as immediately fascinating as The MM (I've read it twice in a row, having much more pleasure in the second reading), Spent reveals once again how deep and unconventional is prof.Miller's intellectual work, even compared to other Evolutionary Psychology scholars.
Engaging and insightful read, it enriches the discussion made earlier by Prof. Miller, which focused mostly on the birth of human intelligence as a means of self-promotion to potential partners (mating signal), and widens it to include the display of personal traits to friends and relatives as well (social signal).
From this broader perspective Miller can make a critical analysis of the behavior of modern humankind, and in particular of the consumerist behavior, which happens to be the preferred way to display our own qualities in the modern world.
His analisys of modern consumerism is not negative and unfavorable in every aspects, as could be a marxist one, as he acknowledges the marketers ability to turn our world into a big playground. The problem is that through the purchase of consumer products, and this is one of the theses of the book, we have chosen a very poor and inadequate way of "advertise" our traits, conveying often no information about ourselves but our spending power (Pecunia non olet mode).
And what's more important is that, although the urge to display is unescapable (doomed to display), the way we do it is not carved in stone, but contingent and determined by historical conditions, and could have been different.
Miller then suggests some ways to counteract this state of things, trying, for example, to create local communities of like-minded people, where it is easier to be valued and appreciated without the necessity to pass through the consumeristic gate. I have to say that some advices could result a bit visionary and utopian, but they are anyway witty and thought-provoking.
Eagerly waiting for the next book, I strongly recommend this one, in particular to those high in Openness.
How evolutionary psychology applies to marketing February 15, 2010
Rolf Dobelli (Switzerland)
Evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller examines modern consumer culture through a scientific lens. The result is thought-provoking, useful and often witty, but a bit uneven. Miller does of fine job of explaining evolutionary psychology and, especially, of showing how the endless purchases that define "consumerist capitalism" come from an unacknowledged need to demonstrate physical characteristics or personality traits to others. This section of the book will interest anyone seeking original social critique. The highly focused discussion of the "Central Six" personality traits provides a stable foundation for evaluating other people or marketing to them. The final section, in which Miller proposes social alternatives to consumerism, challenges existing culture, but is not nearly as convincing (or, strangely) as witty as the earlier sections. getAbstract recommends this book to marketing and human resources professionals, and to any reader who wants to think deeply about the foundations of societies and their economies.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
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