Wetenschappelijk artikel

Transcription

1 UNIVERSITEIT GENT FACULTEIT POLITIEKE EN SOCIALE WETENSCHAPPEN Is a Chanel bag a declaration of rivalry? The meaning of female luxury consumption in an intrasexual competition context. Wetenschappelijk artikel aantal woorden: 9836 Charlotte Matthys MASTERPROEF COMMUNICATIEWETENSCHAPPEN afstudeerrichting COMMUNICATIEMANAGEMENT PROMOTOR: DR. Liselot Hudders COMMISSARIS: DR. Kristin Van Damme ACADEMIEJAAR

2

3 PREFACE This paper forms the last step to complete four years of studying to become a master in the communication sciences. Although it was not an easy year, it was a very instructive one, because this paper gave me the chance to combine two subjects that have always fascinated me: communications and luxury consumption. In order to write this paper, I received significant support of different people. First of all, I would like to thank my promoter, dr. Liselot Hudders, who always motivated me to go the extra mile in the research process, as well as in the writing process. Next, I would like to acknowledge the help of my parents, who gave me the possibility to study, and my grandparents, who were of great support during the time it took to write this paper. I would like to show my appreciation to all of the respondents who took the time to fill in the survey and my friends for always being there. Special thanks go out to Katrien De Waele who helped me find respondents and made sure I kept thinking positively when things did not go as planned. 2

4 ABSTRACT While there has already been a significant amount of research in the field of luxury consumption, the subject of female luxury consumption is a section that is often neglected. Here, we explored the subject more in the basis of the paradigm of evolutionary psychology. According to this paradigm people consume luxuries to communicate certain latent characteristics, such as wealth, status and personality characteristics (Miller, 2009). When men consume luxuries, they signal these traits to women who might be a suitable mating partner. This is different for their female counterparts; several authors suggest that women consume luxuries not to signal hidden traits to men, but rather to other women, in situations of intrasexual competition. In this paper, we explored how other women perceive women who consume luxuries in an intrasexual context and how these perceptions changed as a woman was also signaling a short- term mating strategy. We conducted an experiment with a between subjects factorial design (2x2x2) with 220 women between 18 and 50 years old. Results indicated a woman is perceived as more suitable for a short- term relationship and of higher status when she consumes luxuries in an intrasexual context. Also, respondents felt more rivalry towards women who consume luxuries in an intrasexual context and at the same time, signaled a short- term mating strategy. Lastly, how materialistic a woman is might have an influence on her feelings of rivalry towards a woman consuming luxuries. These results contribute to the literature regarding female luxury consumption and intrasexual competition. Furthermore, they provide information to marketers regarding the perception of women consuming luxury products. Keywords: intrasexual competition, mate attraction, female luxury consumption, materialism, mating strategy. 3

5 NEDERLANDSE SAMENVATTING Er is reeds veel onderzoek gedaan naar het fenomeen luxe consumptie. Toch blijkt dat een onderdeel van dit onderzoeksgebied, nl. vrouwelijke luxe consumptie, tot voor kort verwaarloosd werd. Recent is hier verandering in gekomen en wordt er meer belangstelling getoond vanuit evolutiepsychologische hoek. Ook wij maken hier gebruik van dit paradigma, dat tracht een ultimate i.p.v. een proximate verklaring te geven aan een bepaald gedrag. Vanuit de evolutionaire psychologie blijkt dat mensen aan luxe consumptie doen om bepaalde latente karakteristieken van zichzelf te signaleren naar anderen. Deze karakteristieken kunnen onder meer status, rijkdom of persoonlijkheidskenmerken zijn. Uit onderzoek (Griskevicius et al., 2007; Sundie et al. 2011; Saad, 2011) blijkt dat mannen aan luxe consumptie doen om deze karakteristieken te signaleren naar vrouwen, om zo een geschikte partner aan te trekken. Voor vrouwen is dit principe echter niet van toepassing. Zo blijkt dat mannen vrouwelijke luxe consumptie niet als een belangrijke cue zien in het zoeken naar een geschikte partner. Toch doen vrouwen ook aan luxe consumptie. Hoe valt dit dan te verklaren vanuit een evolutiepsychologisch oogpunt? Volgens Griskevicius en Wang (2013) en Hudders et al. (2014) doen vrouwen aan luxe consumptie, niet om informatie naar mannen te signaleren, maar eerder naar andere vrouwen toe. In situaties van intraseksuele competitie (waar vrouwen concurreren voor een geschikte mannelijke partner) zouden vrouwen door luxe te consumeren aan zelfpromotie doen en op deze manier proberen hun concurrenten te ontmoedigen om de strijd met hen aan te gaan. Het doel van dit onderzoek is om na te gaan wat vrouwen percipiëren wanneer zij een vrouw zien die aan luxe consumptie doet in een intraseksuele context. We verwachten dat vrouwen rivaliteit zullen voelen jegens een vrouw die aan luxe consumptie doet en dat ze haar mate value als hoger zullen inschatten. Daarnaast verwachten we dat deze gevoelens van rivaliteit en gepercipieerde mate value nog hoger zullen zijn wanneer deze vrouw een korte- termijn relatie ambieert, door het signaleren van een zekere bereidheid tot een korte seksuele ontmoeting. Tenslotte verwachten we dat rivaliteit en gepercipieerde mate value zullen stijgen wanneer een vrouw die luxe consumeert beoordeeld wordt door een vrouw die materialistisch is ingesteld. Om dit te onderzoeken maakten we gebruik van een experiment (between subjects factorial design, 2 x 2 x 2), dat werd uitgevoerd bij 220 vrouwen tussen 18 en 50 jaar, die bereikt werden via e- mail of sociale media. Uit de resultaten blijkt dat vrouwen die luxe consumeren in een intraseksuele context gezien worden door andere vrouwen alsof ze een hogere status hebben en geschikter zijn voor een korte- termijn relatie. Wanneer ze ook nog eens een ambitie voor een korte- termijn relatie signaleren, stijgen de 4

6 gevoelens van rivaliteit. Tenslotte toonden de resultaten ook nog aan dat materialistische vrouwen hogere gevoelens van rivaliteit hadden tegenover een vrouw die luxe consumeert. Dit onderzoek draagt bij tot de literatuur in verband met intraseksuele competitie en vrouwelijke luxe consumptie. Deze bevindingen kunnen ook nuttig zijn voor marketers, die in het ontwikkelen van hun marketing campagnes rekening kunnen houden met de percepties die vrouwen hebben van andere vrouwen die luxeproducten consumeren. 5

7 REGISTER 1. INTRODUCTION LITERATURE & HYPOTHESES LUXURY CONSUMPTION EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY AS A FRAMEWORK TO STUDY LUXURY CONSUMPTION Costly signaling theory MALE LUXURY CONSUMPTION VS. FEMALE LUXURY CONSUMPTION INTRASEXUAL COMPETITION FEMALE SEXUAL STRATEGIES THE POSSIBLE INFLUENCE OF MATERIALISM RESEARCH OVERVIEW DESIGN STIMULUS MATERIAL PRETEST DEPENDENT VARIABLES RESPONDENTS RESULTS THE EFFECT OF LUXURY CONDITION ON VARIABLES TESTING RIVALRY AND PERCEIVED MATE VALUE THE INTERACTION OF THE INTRASEXUAL AND LUXURY CONDITION General perceptions Specific perceptions THE INTERACTION OF THE INTRASEXUAL CONTEXT, LUXURY CONTEXT AND MATING STRATEGY General perceptions Specific perceptions THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIALISM ON RIVALRY AND PERCEIVED MATE VALUE IN THE LUXURY CONDITION DISCUSSION LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX EFFECTS OF THE LUXURY AND INTRASEXUAL CONDITIONS Mating rivalry Short- term suitability Perceived threat Sexual willingness Status

8 1. INTRODUCTION In recent years, there has been a significant amount of academic research regarding a person s motivation to engage in luxury consumption (Catry, 2003; Nelissen & Meijers, 2011; Stockburger- Sauer & Teichmann, 2013). One of the reasons for this is that the luxury segment has a significant economic importance. Against a background of dynamic growth in the global luxury market, it is critical for luxury researchers and marketers to understand the reasons why consumers buy luxury, what they believe luxury is, and how their perception of luxury value affects their buying behavior (Wiedmann et al., 2009). This implies that luxury consumption is an interesting phenomenon to study, from an academic, but also from a professional viewpoint. Recently, there has been a growing interest in luxury consumption from the paradigm of evolutionary psychology (Gill & Saad, 2000; Griskevicius & Kendrick, 2013). From this perspective, luxury consumption is seen as a way to unconsciously signal certain information to others (Hudders et al., 2014). An extensive amount of evolutionary psychology research regarding men who consume conspicuously has already been conducted (Griskevicius et al., 2007; Sundie et al., 2011). The results of this research suggest the possibility that men engage in luxury consumption to attract a mating partner by signaling to women that they have a high social status and a great amount of resources (Saad, 2011; Miller, 2009; Vyncke, 2011). As for women, the research into the motives of female luxury consumption is rather limited, but this is changing. According to Stockburger- Sauer & Teichmann (2013), women have a more positive attitude toward and a higher purchase intention of luxury brands versus non- luxury brands than men. Although it seems that women enjoy consuming luxuries and do so regularly, they do not have the same motivations as men. It appears that luxury consumption is not an important cue for men when they consider a potential mating partner, so consuming luxuries might not be of great use in finding a mating partner for women. If luxury consumption is not useful as a cue to men, could there be another motivation for women? According to Hudders et al. (2014) and Griskevicius & Wang (2013), there is. The results of their research show that women do not engage in luxury consumption to signal information to men, but rather to other women. It appears that women can find themselves in a situation of intrasexual competition, where they have to compete against other women for a relationship with a decent mating partner. In this situation, women signal to their rivals that they have qualities that might contribute to their mate value. Griskevicius & Wang (2013) have given empirical prove that this is the case in situations of mate retention, where women try to prevent rivals from threatening their relationship. According to the authors, women engage in luxury consumption to show other women 7

9 that their partner is especially devoted to them. The goal of this paper is to investigate if luxury consumption might have a similar cause in situations of mate attraction. We will study how women perceive other women in a context of intrasexual competition. More specifically, we want to find out if in a situation of mate attraction, women would feel more rivalry towards other women who are consuming luxuries, in contrast to women who are not. Secondly, it seems useful to look at the sexual strategies women deploy. In research conducted by Sundie et al. (2011), it became clear that men, who follow a short- term mating strategy, were more likely to engage in conspicuous consumption. Also, women correctly perceived these men as wanting a short- term relationship. Hence, another purpose of this paper is to find out if women might unconsciously be signaling their mating strategy too. Will women feel even more rivalry if another woman consumes luxuries and has a short- term sexual strategy? Lastly, we will examine whether there might be an influence of a woman s materialistic sentiments on her feelings of rivalry towards a woman who is consuming luxuries. The goal of this study is to learn more about the motives women have for engaging in luxury consumption. This could potentially be valuable information for scientists who investigate luxury consumption, but also for marketers in the luxury segment, because this might give them a better insight in the motivations women have for conspicuous consumption. Lastly, this paper contributes to the research about intrasexual competition and that of female luxury consumption in general. 8

10 2. LITERATURE & HYPOTHESES 1. LUXURY CONSUMPTION In the Dutch television show De Rekenkamer (27 maart 2014, NPO) the actual price of a bottle of perfume was calculated. While we easily pay ninety euros for a bottle of Chanel n 5, it appears that the production of this perfume and its bottle only costs about seven euros. One might wonder why people tend to spend a lot of money on expensive cars, shiny jewelry, designer clothing, and other luxury goods, even though they know they are paying too much money for the product they buy. Despite global economical crises, the number of luxury consumers has more than tripled in under 20 years, to around 330m people. Spending has risen at a similar rate, to an estimated 217 billion ($300 billion) in 2013 (M.S., 2014, March 11). The latter suggests that in the process of attaining and consuming luxury products, consumers enjoy additional aspects of the product, rather than just the functional. Scientific research has already shown that people might receive certain benefits when engaging in luxury consumption. According to Vigneron & Johnson (2004) luxuries offer psychological benefits to consumers that cheaper products may not. Nia and Zaichkowsky (2000) say that the psychological benefits are considered the main factor distinguishing luxury from non- luxury products. Studies demonstrate that luxury consumers are searching for personal rewards and intrinsically pleasing qualities, because luxury brands offer a certain emotional pleasure to consumers and they offer a superior product quality (Tsai, 2005). Wiedmann, Hennings & Siebels (2009) write that a personally oriented type of consumption as well as functional and financial aspects should ( ) be considered in the marketing management of luxury brands. While these hedonistic benefits play an important role, luxury consumption also has another function: Luxury brands can signal hidden information about the owner to significant others (Hudders, 2012). Miller (2009) describes this hidden information as latent characteristics : These latent characteristics might be wealth, status or personality characteristics. Grossman and Shapiro (1988) define luxury goods as goods that people use to show prestige and status while the difference in functional utility over other goods is largely negligible. So, we can make a distinction between luxury consumption for hedonistic reasons and conspicuous consumption, i.e. attaining and exhibiting costly items to impress upon others that one possesses wealth or status (Sundie et al., 2011). 9

11 In this paper, we will discuss the use of luxury products in the conspicuous consumption context, and try to investigate what people signal to others while visibly consuming luxury products. 2. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY AS A FRAMEWORK TO STUDY LUXURY CONSUMPTION Across history, humans have always consumed luxuries and showed conspicuous behavior. Egyptian pharaohs, for example, displayed their wealth with golden thrones, elaborate artworks, and giant pyramids; Incan potentates dwelled in immense palaces surrounded by gold. Such showy displays of wealth have been documented in cultures as diverse as feudal Europe and Japan and among Polynesian Islanders, Icelandic communities, Amazonian foraging tribes, and Melanesian people of Australia (Bliege, Bird & Smith, 2005; Godoy et al., 2007). For this reason, it is a logical step to look at luxury consumption from an evolutionary perspective, because it appears to be a universal, non time- bound phenomenon. Evolutionary psychology can furthermore be a useful framework as it tries to give an answer to the question of which motivations people have to consume luxury products. While traditional psychology gives a proximate explanation to this question, evolutionary psychology wants to give an ultimate explanation: ( ) evolutionary psychology also tries to answer the question as to why a particular behavior exists, rather than only answering how it operates and what it results in, given that it exists (Gill & Saad, 2000). Evolutionary psychologists believe that we act in certain ways because of psychological mechanisms in our mind, which are the result of evolution by selection (Buss, 1995). The main function of these psychological mechanisms is that they solve specific adaptive problems in human ancestral environments. The goals of these mechanisms are, on the one hand, survival, and on the other hand, maximizing reproductive success. Two processes characterize these goals: the first one is natural selection, while the second process is sexual selection. Charles Darwin wrote that sexual selection is dependent of the success of some individuals of the same sex over others in the process of the continuation of the species, whereas natural selection is dependent on both sexes, at every age, in accordance with the general living conditions (Darwin, 1871 in: Delmotte & Goyvaerts, 2009) Here, we will focus on sexual selection, because natural selection does not fall in the scope of this research. Saad (2011) states that sexual selection is the process that results in the evolution of traits and behaviors that yield an advantage in the mating domain. It is the process in which people do their very best to be as attractive as possible for the other sex, physically as well as with regards to their clothes, cars, houses, etc. (Delmotte & Goyvaerts, 2009). 10

12 1. COSTLY SIGNALING THEORY According to costly signaling theory, which has its origins in evolutionary psychology, apparently wasteful behavior may function as a reliable signal of desirable individual qualities (Zahavi & Zahavi, 1997). This phenomenon of wasteful behavior is also called the handicap principle : The handicap principle considers the burden imposed by extravagance as a handicap that tests the quality of the signaler. Signalers of a higher quality can develop the handicap more than signalers of a lower quality (Zahavi, 1975). There is a strong relationship between the signal and the cost (Hudders et al., 2014): it has to be hard for an individual with a lower fitness to engage in signaling than for a high fitness individual. When the signal is easily produced and displayed with low cost, such that every animal can do so equally well, the signal loses its value because it can no longer reveal differences in the genetic quality of individuals. Following this reasoning, evolutionary psychology suggests that luxury consumption is a way for people to signal to other people that they have the ability to gather enough resources, in order to buy luxury products. Conspicuous consumption is the act of spending money to gain status and impress others by indicating that one has enough money to purchase frivolous and wasteful goods (Griskevicius et al., 2007). Having a lot of resources is one of the factors that can increase your social status. For conspicuous consumption to be a costly signal it has to be easily observable, hard to fake, associated with an unobservable, yet desirable individual quality and it must ultimately yield a fitness benefit. Of course, it is important that these signals are visible to others and that they are not ignored (Bliege, Bird & Smith, 2005; Nelissen & Meijers, 2010). Several authors (Miller, 2009; Saad, 2007) have already reasoned that the human preference for luxury consumption originates from a universal tendency for signaling traits that might increase status (Nelissen & Meijers, 2010). This universal tendency however, might surface in different ways. Gender, for example might be of significant influence on why and how people engage in showy spending. 3. MALE LUXURY CONSUMPTION VS. FEMALE LUXURY CONSUMPTION Although research on the role of gender in luxury consumption is rather limited, some studies show that men and women have very different motivations for consuming luxury products (Sundie et al., 2011; Saad, 2011). In a study by Buss (1989) conducted in 33 countries, it became clear that there are different evolutionary selection pressures on human males and females. While females were found to value cues of resource acquisition in potential mates more highly than males, characteristics signaling reproductive capacity were valued more by males than by females. This is 11

13 also discovered in studies of human mate choice, where men more often display their resources than women, because women place more emphasis on cues of wealth and status when choosing a mating partner (Buss, 1989; Buunk et al., 2001; Townsend & Levy, 1990). Men spend great amounts of money on cars, watches, etc. According to Griskevicius et al. (2007), this might be because men signal their status and ability to acquire resources to women, so women would give their preference to them in their search for a mating partner. Men use conspicuous consumption as a sexual signaling system (Griskevicius, 2007; Sundie et al., 2011). Furthermore, it appears that when men have a romantic desire, there is an increase in their desire to spend more on conspicuous products, whereas there was no increase in their desire for inconspicuous products (Sundie et al., 2011). While this gives a solid explanation for men s motives for luxury consumption, the motives for female luxury consumption remain unclear. Li et al. (2002) and Li & Kenrick (2006) found that women indicate that economic resources in a man are a necessity, whereas men appraise economic resources in a woman as a luxury. Men prefer cues of attractiveness when searching for the right mating partner. Luxury consumption does not contribute to a woman s attractiveness: men s judgments of a woman s attractiveness were independent from her conspicuous consumption patterns (Dunn & Hill, 2014 in: Hudders et al., 2014), so it seems useless for women to consume luxuries to signal their attractiveness to potential mates. This was also found in research conducted by Sundie et al. (2011), where results showed that men judging a woman on desirability as a short- term and a long- term mate were unmoved by her purchase of a conspicuous versus frugal automobile. 4. INTRASEXUAL COMPETITION Then how can we explain female luxury consumption? According to Hudders et al. (2014) and Griskevicius and Wang (2013), there is a possibility that women don t consume luxuries to cue their attractiveness to the opposite sex, but rather to signal information to other women. To understand this, we have to consider a concept called intrasexual competition. Intrasexual competition occurs when two or more members of the same sex compete against each other for a resource that one of the competitors does not wish to share. With regard to mating, women compete for access to a desired male, and equivalently, men compete for access to a desired female (Cox & Fisher, 2008). In situations of intrasexual competition, men tend to get aggressive, while women show indirect rivalry. Women perceive the danger associated with an act of aggression as higher than men, even in the same objective situation, and this perceived danger is a strong negative predictor of aggression (Bettencourt & Miller, 1996; Eagly & Steffen, 1986). Because 12

14 of the perceived danger, women are more likely going to compete by indirect aggression and verbal communications, such as gossiping (De Backer et al. 2007), but also by breaking confidences, criticizing other s clothing, appearance or personality, excluding from the group, etc. (Fisher, 2013). In the literature regarding female intrasexual competition, two strategies have been identified: competitor derogation and self- promotion (Buss & Schmitt, 1996). While competitor derogation refers to any act that is used to decrease a rival s value relative to oneself, self- promotion refers to any act used to enhance the positive qualities of oneself, relative to same- sex others (Cox & Fisher, 2008). Although these tactics can be used by both sexes, it appears that women use them more frequently than men, because these tactics of indirect aggression hold less risk than more aggressive tactics (Campbell, 2004). With regard to luxury consumption, the tactic of self- promotion is probably the strongest incentive. Engaging in luxury consumption might be a way to promote oneself against rivals in the competition for a mating partner. This strategy is particularly interesting to investigate in a luxury context, because it is not necessary to know the identity of the rivals, whereas such knowledge is needed for competitor derogation, since the latter is aimed at a specific individual (Hudders et al., 2014). According to research conducted by Hudders et al. (2014), this seems to be the case. In the latter research, women were primed with either a scenario that induced intrasexual competition or a neutral scenario. After reading the scenario, the women in the intrasexual competition context had an increased preference for luxury products, but only for products that increased their attractiveness (i.e. a luxurious dress). In a second study, the authors wanted to find out what the perception is of women who consume luxuries. The results revealed that women who consume luxuries are perceived as more attractive, ambitious, sexier, and of high status compared to when they consume non- luxuries. Important to know is that there are two kinds of situations in which intrasexual competition for mates is possible. The first one is mate attraction. Here, both the woman and her female rival are single and they are competing for the same man. The second one is mate retention. In a mate retention context, one woman has a relationship with a man, which is threatened by another woman who is interested in the same man. Whereas activating a mate attraction motive leads people to be more attentive to attractive members of the opposite sex (Maner et al. 2005), activating a mate guarding motive leads people to be more attentive to attractive members of the same sex, who represent potential threats to the relationship (Maner et al. 2009). Griskevicius & Wang (2013) conducted research that focused on the relationship between women consuming luxuries in a mate retention context. Findings showed that activating a motive to guard one s mate triggered women to seek and display lavish possessions. Similar to what Hudders et al. 13

15 (2014) found, it became clear in the research by Griskevicius & Wang that women might conspicuously consume because they have the intention to signal something to other women. Their study, however, is different, since they specifically examined this desire for luxuries in a context of mate retention. In this context, the signals that women send are directed to their rivals, who pose a threat to their relationship. The research revealed that simply triggering a mate- guarding motive led women to seek out more luxurious products. Also, women specifically chose luxury products that could be consumed conspicuously, rather than private. This means that they wanted others to see them using these luxury goods, which is in accordance with the theorem that women consume luxuries as a self- promotion tactic. Additionally, results illustrated that women also understood these signals. When seeing a woman consuming luxury products, they believed that these women s partners were especially devoted to them. Although this study is a notable contribution to the research of female luxury consumption, there still is a lot of uncharted territory. As the authors write themselves, single women also notably engage in conspicuous consumption. Griskevicius & Wang suggest that single women might consume conspicuously because they want to pre- guard a mate and signal to possible rivals that they have to stay away from their future man. Thus, luxury consumption could also be useful for signaling information to rivals in a mate attraction context. What Griskevicius & Wang suggest here is part of the purpose of this research. In this paper, we would like to find out what signals single women are sending out when consuming luxuries in a mate attraction context. In a context where suitable male mating partners are rare or are selective in their mating choice, women have to compete with others and also have to signal their mating qualities in order to get a good partner, who can provide enough resources for them and their offspring (Cox & Fisher, 2008). According to Fisher (2013), women will see another woman as a friend or as a rival, depending on their attractiveness and mate value. Building on these previous studies, we assume that women signal information to other women when they consume luxuries in a mate attraction context. In this paper, we would like to investigate if other women also receive these signals, and if there are feelings of rivalry towards the women who send these signals. Furthermore, we will explore if their will be differences in perceived mate value (measured with traits like sexual willingness, status and suitability for a short- term relationship). Hypothesis 1a: Women who are consuming luxuries will be perceived by other women as having higher mate value than women who are not consuming luxuries. Hypothesis 1b: 14

16 Women will feel more rivalry for women who are consuming luxuries than for women who are not consuming luxuries. Hypothesis 2a: When a woman consumes luxuries, there will be higher feelings of rivalry in the intrasexual competition context than in the neutral context, compared to when she is not consuming luxuries. Hypothesis 2b: When a woman consumes luxuries, her perceived mate value will be higher in the intrasexual competition context than in the neutral context, compared to when she is not consuming luxuries. 15

17 5. FEMALE SEXUAL STRATEGIES To investigate this female luxury consumption in a mate attraction context, it would also be useful to look at the sexual strategy women may pursue. We will use the terms short- term mating and long- term mating, based on the definitions Buss & Schmitt implemented in their 1993 article on Sexual Strategies Theory. For the purpose of this article, we see short- term mating as engaging in a brief encounter with a mating partner, without any further engagement, whereas long- term mating is defined as engaging in a committed relationship for an indefinite period. A core premise of the theory is that human mating is inherently strategic: Humans seek particular mates to solve specific adaptive problems that their ancestors confronted during the course of human evolution (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). This is also why the authors call it strategies : the goal is intended. When investigating sexual strategies, it is important to take into account the Parental Investment Theory. Parental investment is defined as "any investment by the parent in an individual offspring that increases the offspring's chances of surviving (and hence reproducing) at the cost of the parent's ability to invest in other offspring" (Trivers, 1972, p. 139). According to Buss & Schmitt (1993), The sex that invests more in offspring should be more choosy or discriminating about who they mate. For humans, this means that women are the choosier sex, since they have to invest more in the upbringing of their offspring, while men have to compete more to find a mating partner, since they are the less investing sex. Having a child is a heavy burden for a woman, because she has to give birth to the child and take care of it, while for a man, it takes less effort to create offspring. It is important to note that these are generalizations, because especially for humans, there are also men who invest a lot of resources into their offspring and women who tend to invest less. According to the reasoning in the Parental Investment Theory, it seems logical that women are more likely to pursue a long- term mating strategy, while men would be more likely to pursue a short- term strategy. However, Buss & Schmitt (1993) wrote that men and women could both pursue a long- or short- term mating strategy. For women, it is more likely they would engage in a long- term strategy, since they would gain continuous access to a man s resources and parental investment. However, women also engage in short- term mating: there are several distinct benefits that could have accrued to ancestral women who pursued a short- term mating strategy: immediate extraction of resources, using short- term mating as an assessment device to evaluate long- term prospects, securing protection from abuse by nonmated males, and possibly better genes (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). Is it possible that when someone consumes luxuries, they unconsciously also signal their mating strategy? According to Sundie et al. (2011) conspicuous displays may be attractive for short- term partners, since they display hidden information. Conspicuously consuming men may also provide 16

18 nongenetic benefits to women in a short- term mating context. One reason women may seek fleeting relationships is to obtain a short- term provision of economic benefits (Buss & Schmitt, 1993; Hrdy, 1999). Frivolous and extravagant spending by men may signal a willingness to provide substantial economic benefits to women (e.g., extravagant gifts during courtship) in exchange for sexual access (Sundie et al., 2011). Sundie confirms here that conspicuous consumption might signal a certain mating strategy, but only for men with a short- term strategy who are signaling this to women. We found that mating motives triggered conspicuous consumption among men following an unrestricted, low- investment strategy ( ) In contrast, mating motives did not influence spending on or desire for flashy products for restricted, high- investment men. However, in this study, there were no similar results found for women. This again suggests that women who consume luxuries might signal information about their mating strategy to other women, instead of men. Of course this does not happen as explicitly as we put it here; it is more likely that women signal their willingness to engage in an uncommitted relationship. The results of the research by Hudders et al. (2014) show that women who consume luxuries are perceived by other women as more ambitious, sexy, and flirty, and less loyal and mature. These traits might imply the willingness to engage in a short, superficial relationship. So, it is possible that when women consume luxuries they signal their willingness to engage in brief, primarily sexual encounters and that these traits might be related to a short- term mating strategy. We want to investigate if a relationship exists between a woman s mating strategy and her luxury consumption behavior. If women see another woman consuming luxuries, would they be more threatened by a woman pursuing a long- term relationship or a short- term relationship? As we mentioned earlier, there are two strategies for engaging in intrasexual competition: self- promotion and competitor derogation. Buss & Schmitt (1996) found that: Women pursuing a short- term relationship emphasized their sexuality and attractiveness, whereas women pursuing a long- term relationship promoted their faithfulness and sexual restrictiveness. Similarly, tactics for competitor derogation were influenced by the expected duration of the relationship. For example, women pursuing a short- term relationship described other women, whom they perceived as potential competitors, as ugly, frigid, and unhygienic, whereas in a long- term scenario they emphasized a competitor s promiscuity (Cox & Fischer, 2008). We can conclude from the latter that in self- promotion and competitor derogation tactics, women pursuing a short- term relationship will either emphasize their own beauty and sexual unrestrictiveness in contrast to their competitors. Women who want a long- term relationship will emphasize their loyalty, whereas they will describe their competitors as promiscuous. So it is possible that women who consume luxuries, and emphasize their own beauty and willingness to engage in brief encounters, signal their desire for a short- term 17

19 relationship. Hypothesis 3a: When a woman is not consuming luxuries feelings of rivalry will be higher in the intrasexual context (compared to the neutral context) when this woman signals a short- term mating strategy (compared to a long- term mating strategy). Hypothesis 3b: When a woman is consuming luxuries, feelings of rivalry will be even higher than in the non- luxury context, in the intrasexual context (compared to the neutral context) when this woman signals a short- term mating strategy (compared to a long- term mating strategy). Hypothesis 4a: When a woman is not consuming luxuries, her perceived mate value will be higher in the intrasexual context (compared to the neutral context) when this woman signals a short- term mating strategy (compared to a long- term mating strategy). Hypothesis 4b: When a woman is consuming luxuries, her perceived mate value will be even higher in the intrasexual context (compared to the neutral context) when this woman signals a short- term mating strategy (compared to a long- term mating strategy). 6. THE POSSIBLE INFLUENCE OF MATERIALISM The last thing we believe to be worth investigating in this paper is the relationship between a woman s perception of other women consuming luxuries and how materialistic they are. According to Wiedmann et al. (2007), materialism can be described as the degree to which individuals principally find possessions to play a central role in one s life. Wong (1997) states that materialism as a value and as a personality trait is connected with a predilection for luxury items. Materialists in general do tend to link conspicuous consumption to the desire for display of success and to arouse the envy of others. Materialistic oriented consumers rely heavily on external cues, favoring those possessions that are worn or consumed in public places (Richins and Dawson, 1992; O Cass and Muller, 1999). We could say that the signaling theory is especially true for materialistic 18

20 consumers, since they pay a lot of attention to luxury products, which for them are cues that signal status and wealth. Materialistic consumers may regard luxury brands as a means to reach happiness, and may use these brands to evaluate personal or other s success (Vigneron & Johnson, 2004). Richins and Dawson (1992) wrote that materialists consume conspicuously to signal their wealth and success to others and also consider their possessions as a signal of success. Hypothesis 5a: When women are consuming conspicuously, high materialistic women will have more feelings of rivalry towards them than low materialistic women, compared to when she is not consuming conspicuously. Hypothesis 5b: When women consume conspicuously, high materialistic women will perceive their mate value as higher than low materialistic women, compared to when she is not consuming conspicuously. 3. RESEARCH OVERVIEW 1. DESIGN The main goal of this paper is to discover whether or not women feel more rivalry towards women who consume luxuries in a mate attraction context. Additionally, we examine if there is an influence of mating strategy (of the woman in the scenario) on these feelings of rivalry. To investigate this, we use a 2 (intrasexual vs. neutral context) x 2 (luxury vs. non- luxury consumption) x 2 (short- term vs. long- term mating strategy) between subjects factorial experiment. We conducted a pretest to make sure independent variables were manipulated correctly. 2. STIMULUS MATERIAL We designed a questionnaire in which respondents were first exposed to a scenario, which they had to read very carefully. After reading the scenario they had to answer a series of questions. The first batch of questions were related to the character in the scenario, the second batch of questions were personal. We made the questionnaire using the Qualtrics- program and distributed it through social 19

21 media and e- mail addresses women put to our disposal voluntarily. As an incentive, participants read at the beginning of the questionnaire that they could win two film tickets when they took part in the survey. In the scenario, the main character is a young woman (Jolien). The story talks about how she spends her vacation and how she meets a man there (Matthias). Since we wanted to manipulate different independent variables, there are eight versions of the story. These are the independent variables we manipulated. Luxury products. The first independent variable is whether or not Jolien is consuming luxuries. In the luxury condition, Jolien wears a dress, handbag and sunglasses, all of a luxury brand. We described the products as following: exclusive, of very good quality, only available in high- end stores, giving Jolien a luxurious feeling. These descriptive adjectives were based on the work of Hudders, Pandelaere & Vyncke (2013). In the non- luxury condition, we used the following adjectives to describe the dress, handbag and sunglasses: widely available in different stores of the same fashion chain and of moderate quality. We chose to use products that are expected to enhance beauty, rather than luxury products in general, based on the results of the research of Hudders et al. (2014), where women showed a greater preference for luxury products that accentuated a woman s attractiveness in an intrasexual competition context. To ensure the manipulation of the luxury products was consistent with the scenario, we also changed the holiday destination (Luxury: Mauritius; Non- luxury: Turkey) and the activities of Jolien (Luxury: waterskiing, shopping, visiting the local town; Non- luxury: sunbathing and visiting the local town). Intrasexual competition. To induce intrasexual competition, we introduced another character to the story: Lynn. In the intrasexual competition context, Lynn and Jolien are both single and are both competing for the attention of Matthias, whereas in the neutral condition, the story doesn t include Lynn and Jolien is the only one interested in Matthias. Mating strategy. Another independent variable is Jolien s mating strategy. In the short- term mating condition, we described her as a woman who has had a couple of relationships, but is not ready for a committed relationship. She and Matthias have different nationalities and it is not likely that they will see each other again. For the long- term mating condition, we described her as currently single, but she already has had some long- term relationships and is ready to commit to a serious relationship. Also Matthias and Jolien have the same nationality and are exchanging phone numbers so they can meet up again when they are home. 20

22 Materialism. The last independent variable is materialism. To know how materialistic our respondents are, we had them completing a 5 point- scale to measure materialism (Chronbach s alpha=.75) (Richins & Dawson, 1992). 3. PRETEST First of all we conducted a pretest to see whether the independent variables were appropriate to use in the main research project. In a within subjects design we included four different priming stories in which we covered all of the eight conditions. All 20 respondents read these four stories. The respondents of the pretest (n=20) were all female, with a mean age of 30,05. The youngest person was 19 and the oldest 49. To go with the priming stories, we chose a photo of a young woman (Jolien). First, we wanted to know if our respondents found this woman attractive. On a scale from 1 (attractive) to 5 (unattractive) the mean score was 2,11. We conducted a paired t- test, but no significant differences were found between the four stories. In the priming stories, we manipulated the mating strategy of the woman. She either had a short- term or a long- term strategy. In every case, most of the respondents gave the right answer as to which strategy Jolien deployed. On a scale of 1 (very credible) to 5 (not at all credible), the average mean score was This means that respondents found the stories credible to very credible. In the first two stories, Jolien was found to be more competitive (M=2) than in the last two stories (M=2.77). Competition was measured on a 5- point scale (1= competitive, 5= not competitive). A paired samples t- test indicated a significant difference for the level of competition between the first two stories and the last: t(19)= , p=.01. Jolien s behavior was found to be more luxurious in the luxury condition (M=3.83) than in the non- luxury condition (M=1.85). According to the paired samples t- test, this difference was significant (t(16)=13.57, p=.00). The same results were found for the clothes and accessories Jolien was wearing. In the luxury condition, they were perceived as more luxurious (M=4.21) than in the non- luxury condition (M=1.91). Again, a paired samples t- test was conducted, which showed a significant difference: t(16)= 14.27, p= DEPENDENT VARIABLES What we wanted to explore here was the effect of the independent variables on feelings of rivalry and the perceived mate value. We used a 5 point- scale by by Bleske- Rechek, A., & Lighthall, M. (2010) to measure mating rivalry. Also, we asked respondents how threatened they felt by Jolien. To measure the perceived mate value of the girl in the story, we asked the respondents two questions 21

23 regarding her suitability for a short- term relationship, two questions about her sexual willingness and two questions about her status. 5. RESPONDENTS We started out with 271 respondents but after data cleaning, there were 220 people left. All of them were women originating form the Flemish part of Belgium. The mean age was % of the respondents were students, 10.5% were employees. The other 17.7% of the research population consisted of government officials, workers, independents, one housewife and one woman who had a management function. With regards to monthly income, 66.8 % of the respondents earned less than 1000, most likely this is due to the fact that a lot of students entered in the survey. 12.7% earned between 1500 and 3000 in a month. 34.7% of the respondents were single or divorced, 65.3% was either in a relationship, cohabiting or married. These women fit the profile we envisioned for our respondents. We specifically looked for women between 18 en 50 years old, because they are most likely to find themselves in situations of intrasexual competition. Their background was not of primordial importance, because intrasexual competition, rivalry and materialism are phenomena to be find in every environment, but it is best to have a diversified sample. Qualtrics randomly assigned the respondents to the conditions in accordance to the following scheme. Luxury product Non luxury product Luxury product Non luxury product Intrasexual competition 28 respondents (1) 24 respondents (2) 25 respondents (3) 28 respondents (4) Context Neutral context 29 respondents (5) 29 respondents (6) 28 respondents (7) 28 respondents (8) Short- term mating strategy Long- term mating strategy 4. RESULTS 22

24 1. THE EFFECT OF LUXURY CONDITION ON VARIABLES TESTING RIVALRY AND PERCEIVED MATE VALUE First, we wanted to find out what the effect of the luxury condition was on several dependent variables. We started with a t- test for the dependent variable mating rivalry, on which luxury had a marginal significant effect (t(213)=- 1.85, p=.07). This indicates that respondents had more feelings of rivalry in the luxury (M=3.21) than in the non- luxury condition (M=3.03). We did the same for the perception of Jolien as a suitable partner for a short- term relation. The t- test (t(205)=- 2.1, p=.04) indicated that in the luxury condition (M=3.4), respondents found her more suitable for a short- term relationship than in the non- luxury condition (M=3.16). The t- test which had feelings of threat as dependent variable was not significant (t(212)=- 1,16, p=.25). T- tests for the two items to measure sexual willingness, flirty (t(218)=-.65, p=.52) and loyal (t(218)=.47, p=.64), were not significant. To measure the perception of Jolien s status, we used the items rich and wealthy. For rich, the t- test showed a significant effect (t(218)=- 12,33), p=.00), respondents perceived Jolien as richer in the luxury condition (M=4.06) than in the non- luxury condition (M=2.97). For wealthy there was also a significant difference (t(t218)=- 10.6, p=.00) between the luxury condition (M=4) and the non- luxury condition (M=2.97). 2. THE INTERACTION OF THE INTRASEXUAL AND LUXURY CONDITION 1 1. GENERAL PERCEPTIONS First, we conducted a two- way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with the intrasexual and luxury context as independent variables and mating rivalry as dependent variable. There was no significant two- way interaction effect (F(1,211)=1.5, p=.22), neither was there a significant main effect of the intrasexual context (F(1,211)=1.35,p=.11). We did found a marginal significant main effect of the luxury condition on mating rivalry (F(1,211)=3.27, p=.07). For the t- test, cf. supra. 2. SPECIFIC PERCEPTIONS We also examined if respondents perceived Jolien as a threatening. We performed a two- way ANOVA which indicated a marginal main effect of the intrasexual competition on the dependent variable (F(1,210)= 2.84, p=.09). There is also a marginal significant two- way interaction- effect of luxury and intrasexual condition on the perception of Jolien as a threat (F(1,210)=3.63, p=.06). The results of a t- test showed a significant difference in the non- luxury condition (t(101)=- 2.5, p=.01). 1 The graphs of the findings in this chapter are concluded in the appendix. 23

25 Respondents perceived Jolien as more threatening in the intrasexual condition (M=2.8) than in the neutral condition (M=2.37). Next, we investigated the intrasexual and luxury variable as independent variables and the perception of Jolien as a more suitable partner for a short- term relationship as dependent variable. The two- way ANOVA showed no two- way interaction- effect on the dependent variable (F(1,203)=.72, p=.4). We found a main effect of luxury (F(1,203)=4, p=.05). We conducted a t- test to investigate this further, cf. supra. To investigate how respondents perceived Jolien s sexual willingness, we conducted a two- way ANOVA with the perception of Jolien as flirty, which indicated a significant main effect of the intrasexual context (F(1,216)=26.93, p=.00), but not a significant main effect for luxury (F(1,216)=.34, p=.56). Furthermore, there is a significant two- way interaction- effect (F(1,216)=4.49, p=.04). A t- test (t(99)=- 5.35, p=.00) revealed on the one hand a significant effect for the non- luxury condition, where Jolien was perceived as more flirty in the intrasexual condition (M=4.25) than in the neutral condition (M=3.39). On the other hand, there was also a significant difference in the luxury condition (t(109)=- 2.14, p=.03), where Jolien was again perceived as more flirty in the intrasexual condition (M=4.07) than in the neutral condition (M=3.71). A second dimension of sexual willingness is loyalty. A two- way ANOVA showed no significant main effects (luxury: F(1,216)=.13, p=.72); intrasexual context: F(1,216)=.01, p=.93), though there was a significant two- way interaction- effect (F(1,216)=6.36, p=.01). A t- test revealed a marginal significant difference in the non- luxury condition (t(105)=1.7, p=.09) between the neutral condition (M=3.41) and the intrasexual condition (M=3.18). There also was a marginal significant difference (t(111)=- 1.88, p=.06) in the luxury condition between the intrasexual context (M=3.37) and the neutral context (M=3.15). Next we investigated the perception of Jolien s status through two dimensions: rich and wealthy. A two- way ANOVA was conducted to explore the rich - dimension. There was no significant two- way interaction- effect (F(1,216)=.57, p=.45). There were main effects of luxury (F(1,216)=152,76, p<.00) and intrasexual context (F(1,216)=4.18, p=.04). A t- test for the intrasexual context revealed that the effect on the dependent variable was not significant (t(218)=- 1.56, p=.12). Another t- test showed a significant effect of luxury on the perception of Jolien s richness, cf. supra. Next we investigated the wealthy - dimension. There was a significant main effect of the luxury condition (F(1,216)=111,33, p<.00). Also, there was a significant two- way interaction- effect (F(1,216)=3.97, p=.05). A subsequent t- test revealed a significant difference in the non- luxury condition (t(105)=- 2.07, p=.04). Jolien was perceived as wealthier in the intrasexual condition (M=3.12) than she was in the neutral context (M=2.84). 24

26 3. THE INTERACTION OF THE INTRASEXUAL CONTEXT, LUXURY CONTEXT AND MATING STRATEGY We first explored the possibility of an interaction- effect of the mating strategy and luxury context on the different dependent variables. After conducting two- way ANOVA s, it became clear that there was no significant two- way interaction- effect for any one of the variables. That is why we concluded the intrasexual condition; also, this was more consistent with the assumptions in the hypothesis. 1. GENERAL PERCEPTIONS We conducted a three- way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with three independent variables: the luxury context, the intrasexual competition context and the mating strategy condition. The dependent variable is mating rivalry. Results indicate that there is a marginal main effect of luxury on rivalry (F(1, 207)=3.07, p=.08) and a main effect of mating strategy (F(1,207)=7.53, p=.01). There is no main effect of the intrasexual context on mating rivalry (F(1,207)=2.49, p=.12). Neither are there two- way interaction- effects of luxury and mating strategy (F(1,207)=.19, p=.66), luxury and intrasexual context (F(1,207)=1.5, p=.22) or mating strategy and intrasexual context (F(1,207)=.02, p=.89). However, there is a three way interaction- effect of the independent variables on mating rivalry (F(1,207)=.04). Table 1 shows the three- way interaction for the non- luxury condition and table 2 shows the luxury condition. We used a t- test to investigate this further. This showed significant differences between the short- term (M= 3.16) and long- term (M=2.64) mating strategy for mating rivalry in the non- luxury, neutral condition (t(52)=2.75, p=.01). Table 1 Interaction- effect of Luxury, Intrasexual Competition and Mating Strategy (1) 25

27 There also was a significant difference between the short- term (M=3.02) and long- term (M=3.44) mating strategy in the luxury, intrasexual condition (t(51)=2, p=.05). Table 2 Interaction- effect of Luxury, Intrasexual Competition and Mating strategy (2) 2. SPECIFIC PERCEPTIONS We conducted a three- way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with the perception of Jolien as threatening. There was no significant three- way interaction- effect (F(1,206)=2.01, p=.16). There was a significant two- way interaction effect for the luxury and intrasexual context (F(1,206)=4.11, p=.05), for the t- test, cf. supra. There also was a main effect for mating strategy (F(1,206)=13.09, p=.00) and a marginal significant main effect for the intrasexual condition (F(1,206)=3.05, p=.08). We conducted a t- test for mating strategy, which indicated a significant difference (t(212)=3.52, p=.00), respondents in the short- term condition found Jolien more threatening (M=2.86) than in the long- term condition (M=2.45). The t- test for the intrasexual conditions showed no significant effects (t(212)=- 1.61, p=.11). Next, we conducted another three- way ANOVA with the same three independent variables and the perception of Jolien s suitableness for a short- term relationship. There was no significant three- way interaction- effect (F(1,199)=.54, p=.46), neither were there two- way interaction- effects(intrasexual x luxury: F(1,199)=.83, p=.36; intrasexual x mating strategy: F(1,199)=1,199, p=.28; mating strategy x luxury: F(1,199)=.74, p=.39). However, there were main effects: of luxury (F(1,199)=3.94, p=.05) (cf. supra for the t- test) and of mating strategy (F(1,199)=7.23, p=.01) and a marginal significant main effect of the intrasexual context (F(1,119)=2.88, p=.09). We performed a t- test to further investigate the main effects. The first t- test showed a significant difference (t(205)=2.72, p=.01) between the 26

28 short- term (M=3.43) and the long- term condition (M=3.13). The second t- test that was conducted showed a significant difference (t(205)=- 1.7, p=.09) between the neutral (M=3.18) and the intrasexual condition (M=3.38). We also wanted to explore how respondents perceived Jolien s sexual willingness; we used the items flirty and loyal to measure this. We performed two three- way ANOVA s for these two items. The three- way ANOVA for flirty revealed no three- way interaction- effect (F(1,212)=.29, p=.59) and only one two- way interaction- effect for the luxury and intrasexual condition (F(1,212)=4.5, p=.00)(for the t- test, cf. supra). The two- way interaction- effects for mating strategy and intrasexual context (F(1,212)=.05, p=.83) and mating strategy and luxury (F(1,212)=.04, p=.84) were not significant. There was one main effect of the intrasexual context (F(1,212)=26,83, p=.00). The subsequent t- test (t(218)=- 5.1, p=.00) showed that respondents in the intrasexual context perceived Jolien as more flirty (M=4.16) than the respondents in the neutral context (M=3.56). For the three- way ANOVA regarding loyal we found no three- way interaction- effect (F,1,212)=.59, p=.44), and only one two- way interaction- effect for the luxury and intrasexual condition (F(1,212)=6.55, p=.01) (for the t- test, cf. supra). The other two- way interaction- effects were not significant (intrasexual x mating strategy: f(1,212)=.61, p=.43; mating strategy x luxury: F(1,212)=.12, p=.73) There was no main effect of the intrasexual condition (F(1,212)=.02, p=.9) or of the luxury context (F(1,212)=.09, p=.76), but there was a main effect of the mating strategy condition (F(1,212)=5.49, p=.02).. A t- test (t(218)=- 2.34, p=.02) revealed that respondents in the short- term context perceived Jolien as less loyal (M=3.17) than they did in the long- term context (M=3.38). To test the perception of Jolien s status, we conducted a three- way ANOVA with the same three independent variables and as dependent variables; we used rich and wealthy. The first ANOVA (rich) showed no three- way interaction- effect (F(1,212)=.49, p=.48). Two two- way interaction- effects were not significant (Intrasexual x luxury: F(1,212)=.51, p=.48, mating strategy x luxury: F(1,212)=.4, p=53). There was one marginal significant two- way interaction- effect for mating strategy and the intrasexual condition (F(1,212)=3.67, p=.06).the subsequent t- test (t(108) showed a significant difference in the long- term condition, where Jolien was perceived as richer in the intrasexual context (M=3.58) than in the neutral context (M=3.21). We performed an ANOVA with the same dependent variables for wealthy. This indicated no three- way interaction- effect (F(1,212)=.54, p=.46), and only one two- way interaction- effect for luxury and intrasexual condition (F(1,212)=3.96, p=.05) (for the t- test, cf. supra). The other two- way interaction- effects were not significant (intrasexual x mating strategy: (F(1,212)=.88, p=.35; mating strategy x luxury: F(1,212)=1,91, p=.17). The only significant main effect was for the luxury condition (for the t- test, cf. supra). No other main effects were found (intrasexual condition: F(1,212)=.74, p=.39; mating strategy: F(1,212)=2.45, p=.12). 27

29 4. THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIALISM ON RIVALRY AND PERCEIVED MATE VALUE IN THE LUXURY CONDITION The last thing we wanted to explore is the idea that materialism might have an influence on feelings of rivalry in the luxury condition. To investigate this, we calculated the median of materialism and after that, made a new variable were 0=low materialistic and 1=high materialistic. We conducted a two- way ANOVA with luxury and materialism as independent variables and mating rivalry as dependent variable. The results of this ANOVA indicate a marginal significant two- way interaction- effect (F(1,202)=3.09, p=.08). Furthermore there was a main effect of materialism on mating rivalry (F(1,202)=8.63, p=.00), and a marginal significant main effect of luxury (F(1,202)=2.75, p=.1). Table 3 Interaction- effect of Materialism and Luxury on Mating Rivalry A t- test was performed to analyze the interaction- effect in more detail. There seems to be a significant difference in the luxury condition (t(103)=- 3.53, p=.00). Respondents who scored high on materialism felt more rivalry (M=3.44) than respondents who had a low score on materialism (M=2.97). We conducted two- way ANOVA s with the same independent variables for the other dependent variables. No two- way interaction- effect was found for suitableness for a short- term relationship (F(1,202)=.76, p=.38), neither was their a main effect of materialism (F(1,202)=1.21, p=.27), only a main effect for the luxury condition (F(1,203)=3.87, p=.05). For the accompanying t- test, cf. supra. There was no significant two- way interaction- effect for feelings of threat (F(1,202)=.02, p=.9) and no main effect of luxury (F(1,202)=1.55, p=.22) yet there was a main effect of materialism (F(1,202)=6.45, p=.01). The t- test (t(204)=- 2.62, p=.01) indicated that high materialistic respondents felt more threatened (M=2.8) by Jolien than the low materialistic respondents (M=2.48). For the dependent variables flirty and loyal, there were no significant two- way interaction- effects (flirty: F(1,202)=.08, p=.77; loyal: F(1,202)=.33, p=.57). There were no main effects on flirty (luxury: 28

30 F(1,202)=.91, p=.34, materialism: F(1,202)=1.2, p=.28) and no main effects on loyal (luxury: F(1,202)=.45, p=.51, materialism: F(1,202)=.24, p=.63). For the dependent variable rich, there was no two- way interaction- effect (F(1,202)=.31, p=.58), neither was there a main effect for materialism (F(1,202)=1.27, p=.26). There was a main effect for luxury (F(1,202)=155,12, p=.00), for the accompanying t- test, cf. supra. Lastly, there was no significant two- way interaction- effect for the dependent variable wealthy (F(1,202)=.06, p=.81), though there was a main effect for luxury (F(1,202)=112,73, p=.00) (for the t- test, cf. supra), and a marginal significant main effect of materialism (F(1,202)=3.74, p=.06). A subsequent t- test (t(204)=- 2.04, p=.04) showed that high materialistic respondents found Jolien more wealthy (M=3.63) than the low materialistic respondents (M=3.38). 5. DISCUSSION With this research, we wanted to further explore the previous studies on luxury consumption and more specifically, the idea that women consume luxuries to signal information to other women. Hudders et al. (2014) found that other women perceive women who consume luxuries as more attractive, flirty, young, ambitious, sexy, and less loyal, mature and smart, compared to women who do not consume luxuries. We conducted a similar research, in which we tested women s perceptions on different, yet resembling traits. Our study was not fully able to replicate the results of Hudders et al. (2014); we did not find any significant differences for the traits of sexual willingness (in casu flirty and loyal ), neither felt women more threatened by someone who consumed luxuries. This might be because of the differences in the design of the experiments and the differences in dependent variables. However, we did found that women who consume conspicuously are perceived as more suitable for a short- term relationship, and of higher status (richer and wealthier). Also, women felt more rivalry towards them. Another finding of the study by Hudders et al. (2014) is that in a context of intrasexual competition, women have more preferences for luxury products, but only if they enhance their attractiveness (in contrast to neutral luxury products). This implies that women use these luxury products as means to engage in self- promotion. Here, we investigated if other women also perceive this. If a woman consumes luxuries, will her mate value be perceived as higher and will she raise more feelings of rivalry? Regarding these feelings of rivalry, we were not able to find significant differences between the intrasexual context and the neutral context. A possible explanation for this might be that in the scenario we used in the experiment, the intrasexual competition was induced between two 29

31 characters that were part of the scenario, and not between a character and the respondent herself. That is why maybe the respondent did not feel more rivalry, because she was not personally involved in the intrasexual competition context. We did find that a woman in the intrasexual context was perceived as more threatening and wealthy, but only in the non- luxury context. Although these findings are not consistent with our hypothesis, we do have some results that offer possible proof for it. For instance, the sexual willingness of a woman who engages in luxury consumption in an intrasexual context was perceived as higher than in a neutral context. She was found to be flirtier and less loyal. According to a study conducted by Sundie et al. (2011), there is a relationship between the mating strategy of men and their conspicuous consumption. When a man s ambition is to have a short- term relationship, he has the tendency to consume conspicuously and women also perceive this desire for a short- term relationship. In this research, we wanted to break ground for a similar way of thinking towards female luxury consumption. We investigated if feelings of rivalry increased when a woman who consumes luxuries signals either a long- term or short- term strategy. Results indicated no significant differences in feelings of rivalry, neither were there any differences in perception as threat or dimensions of mate value. In the next part, we included the intrasexual context. Results found that when respondents read about a woman who consumed luxuries while signaling a short- term mating strategy, feelings of rivalry increased for the short- term and not for the long- term mating strategy, in the neutral context, but, more importantly, also in the intrasexual context. These results give a limited insight in the influence a signaled mating strategy might have on perceptions of a woman by other women in a certain context. What is striking here is that there were no significant differences with regards to traits of mate value, like status, sexual willingness, etc. We recognize that it is hard to explain this from an intrasexual competition- viewpoint, because the respondents were not directly involved in the scenario. However, it is possible that women feel rivalry against women consuming luxuries and signaling their sexual willingness, because they feel intolerance against sexy peers (Vaillancourt & Sharma, 2011). The study of Vaillancourt & Sharma (2011) revealed that in the presence of a sexy woman who dressed provocatively, the majority of women aggressed against her and disapproved of promiscuous behavior. The sentiments of rivalry might influence the reporting of a woman s mate value, because these women have already started the process of competitor derogation. Lastly, we inspected the possible influence of materialism on mating rivalry. We expected that feelings of rivalry would be higher in the luxury condition for respondents who scored high on the materialism- scale. Results confirm this hypothesis. This implies that materialistic women might have more attention for showy spending of other women, and better understand the cues they are 30

32 signaling. This makes them feel more rivalry, because consuming luxuries speaks to them more than to less materialistic persons. We were not able to repeat these results regarding mate value. Further research is necessary to explore the causes of these feelings of rivalry, perhaps these feelings are triggered by intrasexual competition, or maybe materialistic women are envious of another woman s belongings. Wong (1997) suggests that luxury consumption and materialism are implicitly linked through the personality trait of envy. Envy is linked to conspicuous consumption because one only envies the possessions of others when one can not easily obtain comparable possessions. This research contains quite a few different aspects linked to female luxury consumption. It tries to give additional proof for some parts on the one hand, and on the other tries to break ground for some relatively new ideas, even though we were not able to verify every hypothesis related to these different aspects. First of all, it is clear that woman pay attention to other women consuming luxuries. Their perceptions of status, rivalry, etc. differ from when they see a woman consuming non- luxuries. Second, based on the idea that women use luxuries to communicate certain information about themselves and as a tactic of self- promotion in situations of intrasexual competition (more specifically in this study: situations of mate attraction) this research gives some indications that this is also perceived in such manner. Even more, women consuming luxuries induce more feelings of rivalry when they signal a short- term mating strategy than when they signal a long- term mating strategy. We also found possible indications that materialistic persons feel more rivalry towards women consuming luxuries. This might be because they spend more attention to the cues other women send when they consume conspicuously. These results are a contribution to the literature regarding female luxury consumption and intrasexual competition. Also, they provide information regarding women s perception of a woman consuming luxury products. This information might be useful because marketers can attempt to avoid feelings of rivalry in their marketing campaigns. 6. LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH As we mentioned earlier, the findings were not entirely consistent with our expectations. Several limitations might give a possible explanation for this. First of all, the respondent sample was rather small, and consisted mainly out of students and women in the age category Although these are the women that probably are confronted the most with situations of intrasexual competition and mate attraction, a more diverse sample might have given clearer results. Furthermore, as we already mentioned, the intrasexual competition context was induced between two characters in the scenario 31

33 the respondents read. Scores on feelings of rivalry and perceived mate value might have been higher when our respondents were more involved in the scenario. Also, signaling hidden information and intrasexual competition, especially studied within the evolutionary psychology paradigm, are unconscious processes, so asking respondents about their perception in a questionnaire might not be the perfect approach. The results of this study give some indications for further research. First of all, the intrasexual competition context is a subject that is worth more investigation, because this and others studies (see Fisher et al. 2013) have already shown the influence it might have. It seems important to not only focus on the cues that are being send, but also if these are perceived in the same manner. It would be useful to conduct more research where women are primed with intrasexual competition and then see what their actions with regards to luxury are, but also their perceptions of female luxury consumers. Also, it would be interesting to further explore the role of mating strategy in this signaling process. According to Hudders et al. (2014) luxury consumption might have benefits in both the ends of the spectrum of mating strategy. To explore this idea, it seems necessary to find out what exactly women are signaling when they consume luxuries. Following our results, it is not sexual willingness, so there might be other traits worth investigating. Lastly, it could be interesting to further explore the role of materialism. Materialistic consumers feel more rivalry, but why is this? Maybe these women don t see another woman as a competitor in an intrasexual context, but do they envy this woman s possessions and lifestyle (Wong, 1997). 32

34 7. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bettencourt, B., & Miller, N. (1996). Gender differences in aggression as a function of provocation: a meta- analysis. Psychological bulletin, 119(3), 422. Bleske- Rechek, A., & Lighthall, M. (2010). Attractiveness and rivalry in women s friendships with women. Human Nature, 21(1), Bliege, Bird, R., & Smith, E. A. (2005). Signaling theory, strategic interaction, and symbolic capital. Current Anthropology 46, Buunk, B. P., Dijkstra, P., Kenrick, D. T., & Warntjes, A. (2001). Age preferences for mates as related to gender, own age, and involvement level. Evolution and Human Behavior, 22(4), Buss, D. M. & Schmitt D.P. (1993). Sexual Strategies Theory: An Evolutionary Perspective on Human Mating. Psychological Review 100 (2), Buss, D. M. & Schmitt, D. P.(1996). Strategic self- promotion and competitor derogation: sex and context effects on the perceived effectiveness of mate attraction tactics. Journal of personality and social psychology, 70(6), Buss, D. M., Shackelford, T. K. & Schmitt, D. P., & (2005). Universal dimensions of human mate preferences. Personality and Individual Differences, 39(2), Buss, D. M. (1989). Sex differences in human mate preferences: Evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 cultures. Behavioral and brain sciences, 12(01), Buss, D.M. (1995). Evolutionary Psychology: a new paradigm for psychological science. Psychological Inquiry, 6 (1), Buss, D. M. (1996). Paternity uncertainty and the complex repertoire of human mating strategies. American Psychologist, 51(2), Campbell, A. (2004). Female competition: Causes, constraints, content and contexts. Journal of Sex Research, 41, Catry, B. (2003). The great pretenders: The magic of luxury goods. Business Strategy Review 14(3): Cox, A. & Fischer, M. (2008). A framework for exploring intrasexual competition. Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 2,

35 Darwin, C. (2003). The Descent of Man The Origin of Species and the Descent of Man, De Backer, C. J. S., Nelissen, M., & Fisher, M. L. (2007). Let's talk about sex: A study on the recall of gossip about potential mates and sexual rivals. Sex Roles, 56, Delmotte, G. & Goyvaerts, A. (2009). Verleiden. De biologie van het bekoren. Antwerpen: Uitgeverij Vrijdag. Dunn, M. J., & Hill, A. (2014). Manipulated luxury- apartment ownership enhances opposite- sex attraction in females but not males. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 12 (1), Eagly, A. H., & Steffen, V. J. (1986). Gender and aggressive behavior: a meta- analytic review of the social psychological literature. Psychological bulletin, 100(3), 309. Fisher, M. L., Fisher, M., Garcia, J. R., & Chang, R. S. (Eds.). (2013). Evolution's Empress: Darwinian Perspectives on the Nature of Women. Oxford University Press. Gill, T. & Saad, G. (2000). Applications of Evolutionary Psychology in Marketing, Psychology & Marketing, 17 (12), Godoy, R., Reyes- Garcıa, V., Huanca, T., Leonard, W. R., McDade, T., Tanner, S., Seyfried, C. (2007). Signaling by consumption in a native Amazonian society. Evolution and Human Behavior, 28, Griskevicius, V., Tybur, J. M., Sundie, J. M., Cialdini, R. B., Miller, G. F., & Kenrick, D. T. (2007). Blatant benevolence and conspicuous consumption: when romantic motives elicit strategic costly signals. Journal of personality and social psychology, 93(1), 85. Griskevicius, V. & Kendrick, D.T. (2013). Fundamental motives for why we buy: How evolutionary needs influence consumer behaviour. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 23 (3), Griskevicius, V. &Wang, Y. (2014). Conspicuous consumption, relationships, and rivals: women s luxury products as signals to other women. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(5), Grossman, G.M. and Shapiro, C. (1988b), Counterfeit- product trade. The American Economic Review, 78, Hrdy, S. B. (1999). Mother nature. New York: Random House. Hudders, L. (2012). Why the devil wears Prada. Journal of Brand Management, 19 (7):

36 Hudders, L., Pandelaere, M. & Vyncke, P. (2013). Consumer meaning making: The meaning of luxury brands in a democratized luxury world. International Journal of Market Research, 55 (3), Hudders, L., De Backer, C., Fisher, M., & Vyncke, P. (2014). The Rival Wears Prada: Luxury Consumption as a Female Competition Strategy. Evolutionary Psychology, 11: Li, N. P., Bailey, J. M., Kenrick, D. T., & Linsenmeier, J. A. (2002). The necessities and luxuries of mate preferences: Testing the trade- offs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, Li, N. P., & Kenrick, D. T. (2006). Sex similarities and differences in preferences for short- term mates: What, whether, and why. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, Maner, J. K., Kenrick D. T., Becker D. V., Robertson T. E., Hofer B., Neuberg S. L., Delton A. W., Butner J., and Schaller M. (2005). Functional Projection: How Fundamental Social Motives Can Bias Interpersonal Perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88 (1), Maner, J. K., Miller S. L., Rouby D. A. & Gailliot M. T. (2009). Intrasexual Vigilance: The Impact Cognition of Romantic Rivalry. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97 (1), Miller, G. (2009). Spent: Sex, Evolution and Consumer Behavior. New York: Viking. M.S. (2014). Disillusioned hedonist shoppers. Read on March on Nelissen, R. M. A., & Meijers, M. H. C. (2011). Social benefits of luxury brands as costly signals of wealth and status. Evolution and Human Behavior, 32, Nia, A., & Zaichkowsky, J. L. (2000). Do counterfeits devalue the ownership of luxury brands? Journal of Product & Brand Management, 9(7), O Cass, Muller, A. and Muller, T.E. (1999). A study of Australian materialistic values, product involvement and self- image/product- image congruency relationships for fashion clothing. Proceedings of The Ninth Biennial World Marketing Congress, Academy of Marketing Science. Richins, M. & Dawson, S. (1992). A consumer values orientation for materialism and its measurement: Scale development and validation. Journal of Consumer Research 19 (2): Saad, G. (2007). The evolutionary bases of consumption. New Jersey: Psychology Press. Saad, G. (2011). The consuming instinct: What juicy burgers, Ferraris, pornography, and gift giving reveal about human nature. New York: Prometheus Books. 35

37 Stokburger- Sauer, N. E., & Teichmann, K. (2013). Is luxury just a female thing? The role of gender in luxury brand consumption. Journal of Business Research, 66(7), Sundie, J. M., Kenrick, D. T., Griskevicius, V., Tybur, J. M., Vohs, K. D., & Beal, D. J. (2011). Peacocks, Porsches, and Thorstein Veblen: conspicuous consumption as a sexual signaling system. Journal of personality and social psychology, 100(4), 664. Townsend, J. M., & Levy, G. D. (1990). Effects of potential partners' costume and physical attractiveness on sexuality and partner selection. The Journal of Psychology, 124(4), Trivers, R. (1972). Parental investment and sexual selection. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company. Tsai, S. (2005). Impact of personal orientation on luxury brand purchase value. An international investigation. International Journal of Market Research 47 (4): Van der Linden, E.(2014). De Rekenkamer. Nederland: NPO. Vaillancourt, T., & Sharma, A. (2011). Intolerance of sexy peers: Intrasexual competition among women. Aggressive behavior, 37(6), Vigneron, F. and Johnson, L.W. (2004). Measuring perceptions of brand luxury. Brand Management 11 (6): Vyncke, P. (2011). The heart and the mind: on advertising and consumption. Zelzate, Belgium: University Press. Wiedmann, K. P., Hennigs, N., & Siebels, A. (2007). Measuring consumers luxury value perception: a cross- cultural framework. Academy of Marketing Science Review, 7(7), Wiedmann, K. P., Hennigs, N., & Siebels, A. (2009). Value- based segmentation of luxury consumption behavior. Psychology & Marketing, 26(7), Wong, N. Y. (1997). Suppose You Own the World and No One Knows? Conspicuous Consumption, Materialism and Self. Advances in Consumer Research, 24(1). Zahavi, A. (1975). Mate selection a selection for a handicap. Journal of Theoretical Biology 53: Zahavi, A., & Zahavi, A. (1997). The Handicap Principle: A Missing Piece of Darwin's Puzzle. New York: Oxford University Press. 36

38 8. APPENDIX EFFECTS OF THE LUXURY AND INTRASEXUAL CONDITIONS 1.MATING RIVALRY Mating rivalry p=.06 p=.05 p=.78 p= Neutral Intrasexual Neutral Intrasexual Non- luxury Luxury 2. SHORT- TERM SUITABILITY Suitability short- term p=.07 p=.57 p=.56 p=.07 Neutral Intrasexual Neutral Intrasexual Non- luxury Luxury 3. PERCEIVED THREAT Perceived threat p=.01 p=.01 p=.03 p= Neutral Intrasexual Neutral Intrasexual Non- luxury Luxury 37

39 4. SEXUAL WILLINGNESS Flirty Flirty 5 4,5 4 3,5 3 2,5 2 p=.00 p=.04 p=.03 p=.00 Neutral Intrasexual Neutral Intrasexual Non- luxury Luxury Loyal Loyal 5 4,5 4 3,5 3 2,5 2 p=.09 p=.06 p=.06 p=.09 Neutral Intrasexual Neutral Intrasexual Non- luxury Luxury 5. STATUS Rich Rich 5 4,5 4 3,5 3 2,5 2 p=.05 p=.36 p=.36 p=.05 Neutral Intrasexual Neutral Intrasexual Non- luxury Luxury 38