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Hardcover Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior Book

ISBN: 0670020621

ISBN13: 9780670020621

Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior

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Format: Hardcover

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Book Overview

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.

Customer Reviews

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Rated 5 stars
The Mating Mind: Part II

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...

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Rated 5 stars
Good book explaining why we buy what we buy

I found this book enjoyable to read. The author takes us to prehistoric times to explain why we buy certain products such as cars. He argues that we buy things to showcase to others our potential as mates or friends. For example, men might buy masculine looking cars with the hope of attracting women. We buy brand name products, because we want to be seen as cool and associated with the brand and the people who endorse the...

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Rated 5 stars
Time well-spent

_Spent_ offers a valuable opportunity to escape from consumerism craziness and get back in touch with our evolutionary roots. Geoffrey Miller does an amazing job in showing how consumer capitalism preys on our evolutionary drives for displaying fitness indicators and chasing fitness cues, but it ultimately results in our flaunting traits that are often redundant, misleading, useless, or counterproductive. Under the spell...

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Rated 5 stars
I buy, therefore I am

My husband and I play a game when we drive: he points out a car and I tell him what I think that driver thinks other people think of his choice of car. Then I say what I think it really reveals. A Hummer? The driver is a primal hunter-gatherer, powerful and dripping in testosterone. There are very different stories about the Jeep with no doors, the yellow Beetle, the big slow Cadillac. Spent is all about the prehistoric origins...

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Rated 5 stars
safe for consumption

True to the spirit of this book, I purchased a flawless copy of it at a library book sale for $5 (I believe it was an unread review copy). As an insatiable reader of Evolutionary Psychology books, I immediately read it, even though I have several thousand other books previously purchased from library sales waiting in my queue. This is one of the most entertaining books I have read, both in terms of its academic content and...

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