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

• Hypotheses testing

‘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)

EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY

We 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

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)

THE KENYAN RIFT VALLEY‘The cradle of human beginnings’

Source: Winston 2002

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

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)

SAVANNAH LIFE

• Females are based around the camp

• Males try to protect the group

FEMALE and MALE PSYCHOLOGY

• Females tend to be Empathisers:– Social skills

– Communicators

• Males tend to be Systemisers– Spatial skills

– Mechanical aptitude

(Barron-Cohen, 2004)

SAVANNAH and SHOPPING

In hunter-gather societies:

• Females do the gathering -Comparison shopping

• Males do the hunting –Money

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)

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

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)

PIERCEBROSNAN

‘MY TOP SHOPPING TIP? MAKE IT QUICK’

Sunday Times Style

16 March 2003

In association with

HARVEY NICHOLS

CHALLENGE

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

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)

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)

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’

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)

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

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

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

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)

METHOD

• Structured questionnaire, 5-point Likert scales:

• Multi-cultural sample

• Mainly Marketing students

• Shopping style

• Empathising

• Systemising

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)

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

SYSTEMISING

• I can fix electrical wiring myself

• I like watching documentaries

• I find maps easy to read

SAMPLE

• STAGE 1: 185, mainly UK undergraduates

• STAGE 2: 385, mainly non-UK Masters

SHOPPING STYLE SCALE

Scale reliability alpha:

• STAGE 1: 0.86

• STAGE 2: 0.77

SHOPPING STYLE SCALE

Alpha >0.75 for:

Students Non-students

Females Males

Younger <25 Older 25+

Low-context High-context

High gender equality Low gender equality

SHOPPING STYLE RESULTS

Mean scale values

Batch 1 Batch 2 Both Batches

All respondents

40 40 40

Females 45 43 44

Males 35 37 36

EMPATHISING and SHOPPING STYLE

Mean values on shopping style scale:

• High empathisers: 33

• Low empathisers 29

SYSTEMISING and SHOPPING STYLE

Mean values on shopping style scale:

• High systemisers: 29

• Low systemisers: 33

CULTURE and SHOPPING STYLE

Mean values on shopping style scale:

Low-context High-context

Females 44 43

Males 34 37

GENDER EQUALITY and SHOPPING STYLE

Mean values on shopping style scale:

High gender equality

Low gender equality

Females 44 43

Males 35 38

HIERARCHY of SEGMENTS on shopping style

SHOPPINGSTYLE

FEMALES MALES

Tomboys Not tomboys New Men Not New Men

H1 SAVANNAH HYPOTHESIS

H1a Gatherer vs hunter roles Supported

H1b Not positively associated with gender equality

Supported

(negatively associated)

H1c Higher context cultures More feminine shopping style

Supported

(higher for males)

H1 Male and female shopping styles are evolutionarily determined

Supported

H2 EMPATHISERS and SYSTEMISERS

(

H2a Empathisers shop with a Feminine style

Supported

H2b Systemisers shop with a masculine style

Supported

H2 Empathisers and systemisers shopping styles are different

Supported

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)

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

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?

MULTIVARIATE ASPECTS of TESTING THE SAVANNAH HYPOTHESIS of SHOPPING

CHARLES DENNIS,TAMIRA KING and ADRIAN WOODS