Consumer Psychology
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Returning to the list of innate predispositions then it seems that we have a collective sense of sociability based on our habits of living in groups. According to Cosmides and Tooby (2013) our ancestors originally lived in bands of men, women and children with 20–200 members and some of the skills that we naturally develop as we grow up can be traced back to the workings of these social arrangements. If you asked a psychologist (myself included before I researched this book) for an answer to the vexed question of sex differences then a generally accepted view would be that women used different strategies for getting around their environment than men but women were more verbal, capable with language and communication and socially more astute than men were. Spatial/navigational skills and communication/discussion abilities were supposed not to be distributed equally between the sexes. Why? A simple vision of prehistoric life would be invoked and the reason for these tendencies lay in the domestic arrangements of collective life at that time where men were the hunter gatherers while women stayed at home and honed their skills of social interaction. Cosmides and Tooby (op. cit., pp. 208–210) provide a more nuanced account than that. They start by analysing how our ancestral males and females might differ systematically in adaptation to the problems of everyday living, one of which is getting food. There are sex differences here. Women find nourishing plants while men hunt for meat on the move. Women need to remember, relative to fixed landmarks like rocks and trees, where the nourishing plants were and these sites have to be revisited. Hunting requires a different package of skills including getting back home the most energy-efficient way. Over millennia men and women have adapted 8 and therefore should be predisposed to be better (or worse) with these different sets of skills. In a fascinating paper New (2007) and his colleagues visited a farmer’s market near their university in California and asked some shoppers to participate in their experiment. They then led each one on a circuitous route to six stalls, giving them a food e.g. almond, plum to eat at each one and asking them various questions such as their preferences for the foods on display. Afterwards they were taken to a place nearby where they couldn’t see any of the food stalls and had to indicate on a pointing device where they thought the various foods were. Women were more accurate in recalling these foods than men and they were also more accurate with high caloric foods. Whether they liked them or not was irrelevant. It seemed to be the case that women had an advantage over men in remembering where in a fixed array of selling sites various foods were. Also what the authors call high nutritional value foods (e.g. those with high caloric density) 9 were remembered better by both sexes. Other research (e.g. Pintzka , Evensmoen, Lehn, & Håberg, 2016) demonstrated that men in general have a better sense of direction than women in a free ranging environment and that testosterone was an important mediator.
Now before you try and remember just where in the larder the chocolate is, or call your friendly store manager with a great idea on store layout, I should add that these are just propensities. Why do they fascinate us? Perhaps because we are getting faint echoes down the corridors of time of our ancient past and realise that we behave and have skills that we were not aware of. These skills were probably functional once upon time but not now. Well maybe the romantic vision of past relics speaking through us is permitted but anything beyond that needs considerable qualification. Because as soon as we are born our culture is working through us establishing in ever-increasing layers appropriate patterns of behaviour and a massive stockpile of future courses of action for future encounters with the world. It’s called socialisation or learning the ways of our culture which often is shared with all cultures and it will only be on very special occasions and sets of circumstances will the ancient ways show themselves, if at all. But we’ll start with the womb and what goes on in there that could be called learning.
Learning and Changing in the Womb
With advances in imagery technology, we now have the capability to know a lot more about how the human foetus develops within the uterus. We can see this happening and also theorise about it. So let’s explore the current state of knowledge on this subject (Hepper , 2015) paying particular attention to behaviours. It is possible to identify four distinct ‘behavioral states’ based on different kinds of activity. For example the most common is frequent and periodic body movement with the heart rate accelerating in association with the movement. There is evidence of planning here at this time. For example, the foetus will open its mouth just before its hand comes in contact with the mouth. Facial expressions such as smiling, crying, and scowling are detected but there is no evidence yet that these are associated with underlying emotion and they probably reflect ‘motor planning’ where the foetus exercises the new skills of movement. Handedness is detectable with a right arm bias at 10–12 weeks in 90% of those looked at.
There is good evidence that the foetus learns in the womb. Sounds such as music and voices are learnt and recognised after birth . So the mother’s voice is perceived by the child after birth as different from the father’s and those of other women and this means the sound of the mother’s voice, although distorted passing through the abdomen is sufficient to cause this learning. There is a much-cited research finding (Hepper , 1988) that mothers who watch certain ‘soaps’ on TV when pregnant found their infants appeared to recognise them when watching together later and the signature tune in particular was the trigger for recognition. Although the original source is a letter to the Lancet and the cited research is an observation from two groups of mothers, 7 of them who did watch the soap Neighbours avidly while pregnant and a control group of 8 who didn’t, the differences were statistically significant where a quiet and alert state was found in 6 babies of the soap group when they heard the theme tune but only 2 in the control group behaved like that (op. cit., p. 1347). These assessments were made 4–5 days after birth. A more detailed account can be found in Hepper (1991) where the specificity of the effect is mentioned. That is if the experimental ‘soap’ group heard another soap theme tune i.e. the soap Coronation Street or heard Neighbours played backwards, no effects were found.
The foetus also learns flavours in the womb. If the mother has eaten garlic for example during pregnancy then these pass into the amniotic fluid which the foetus can swallow from 12 weeks. This produces a learned preference for garlic which, according to Hepper, Wells, Dornan, and Lynch (2013) produced long-term preferences that can be detected at 9–10 years of age. Since this could be an example of consumption preference being affected by intrauterine learning , it is important to explore the reasoning that Hepper et al. used. The possibility of the family culture being the carrier of these preferences rather than the preference being established in the womb should be considered as a possible reason for these preferences. After all mum eats garlic so surely the child will too? A close examination of the paper however demonstrated that the recruited pregnant mums were selected only if they intended to bottle feed, as breast feeding can provide a setting where flavour preferences are established in the infant, and only if garlic was not part of their dietary culture but they didn’t necessarily dislike it. They were then randomly assigned to either the experimental group or the control group. In this way the researchers attempted to isolate the effects of the experimental intervention. In the 35th week of their pregnancy the experimental group of mothers were asked to consume 3–4 meals each week that contained garlic and this diet lasted a month. And that’s all the intervention consisted of. Fast forward about nine years. About half the mothers in the control and experimental groups were contacted and the children were now 8–9 years old. A rigorous assessment using food diaries was used to see if garlic was now an ingredient in each child’s diet and they were all garlic free. Then all children were given a meal that included a portion of cheese and potato containing garlic. Those children who were exposed to garlic in the womb consumed more of the garlic flavored potato than children not previously exposed to it (op. cit., p. 572).
Learning in the womb is a fact and I
have spent some time on the details of an experiment that supports that. However although there is evidence that the foetus is receptive to sounds (e.g. the mother’s voice) and strong flavours such as garlic and that these influence behavioural responses after birth and linger on, there is no evidence that stimulation of the child-in-the-womb can give the child an advantage after birth. But you wouldn’t know that if you read some of the promotional material aimed at pregnant women for products related to enhancing your future child’s learning. Here you will be told 10 that your child-in-the-womb can get a head start in life by listening to modulated sounds that are based on the human heart beat. 11 However an independent review concluded that there was no sound evidence showing that the provision of extra prenatal auditory stimulation helps the developing child. Potential risks were also mentioned (Moon & Fifer, 2000, Abstract).
We all want to give our children the best for their futures. For many mothers, expecting to give birth can be a harrowing time and even the support of experienced friends and relatives together with their virtual versions online cannot assuage the anxiety that accompanies the anticipation of birth and parenthood. In extreme cases it is given the name tokophobia 12 which can lead to requests for caesarean section on psychological grounds. So in any case we would anticipate mums-to-be to want reassurance so they might grasp any solution sold to them. However the best solution is not to stick a loudspeaker next to your pregnant belly. In my opinion taking charge and talking to the baby inside you means you are actively bonding with him or her and bonding and attachment are essential parts of bringing up baby. As well, we have seen that the mother’s voice is recognised by the foetus when the sound is transmitted through the body to the womb, so increasing the mutual bonding between mother and child. Talking to the child and sharing the experience of pregnancy with one’s partner and close others are also beneficial and relaxing.
Infancy
This is the term usually used for children from birth to about two years of age. The most noticeable change during this period is physical—the infant grows from a babe-in-arms to a child who can stand up and walk. 13 There are also major changes happening in their minds. Even in the first hour of life outside the womb the neonate 14 will attend to faces more than other stimuli (Mondloch et al., 1999) and will try and imitate facial expressions (Meltzoff & Moore, 1983). So human faces have a special privilege and this surely must be because sociability , that ancient need is there at birth. Sociability is also linked to survival as being on your own at that age is not conducive to your continued existence. Environments can be dangerous but fortunately mums and other caregivers can be protective. For many decades psychologists believed that young infants have a built-in survival mechanism where they don’t crawl over edges as these are dangerous. In a classic and well-known experiment by Gibson and Walk (1960) babies were encouraged to crawl onto a glass sheet under which there were cues to depth (a checkerboard pattern which was just below the sheet). Then there was a drop and if the infant was able to use the pattern as a clue to depth because the checkerboard would appear smaller from a height, she should stop. The glass of course was still there so if the infant did not or was not able to recognise the change in texture of the checkerboard pattern which was now about a metre below the glass she would not injure herself by falling as she was supported by the glass sheet. Mum was at the other side encouraging her to come across. Would baby do as she desired to get to mum? Or would the old ‘depth perception says danger’ instinct save her? Well, babies are savvy enough to stay where they are. The consumption angle to this finding is that a tourist attraction in China involves walking across a footbridge over a canyon (see BBC News, 2016) and getting thrills from the terror of seeing the drop below the glass floor of the bridge. However recently the ‘glass cliff’ experiments have been revisited and Adolph , Kretch, and LoBue (2014) showed that the evidence that we are born with fear of heights does not stand up to detailed scrutiny but infants do show heightened attention to drop-offs when they explore their environment. Indeed as adults we often seek out activities such as mountain climbing, para-sailing, or skydiving. Rest assured. There’s nothing unnatural about enjoying these leisure pursuits.
Children don’t grow up on their own and are frequent companions of members of their family, often their mum or their Nan if mum’s at work or on holiday. Infants are carried in slings on the adult’s back or front, either traditionally as in parts of rural China or as a style gesture in metropolitan life. They are rarely alone and mum is often the constant companion 24/7. Mum’s life is often a social one and she will meet up with other members of the family and friends. And as rural life becomes less and less common and city life is now the norm in many parts of the world, the infant child is exposed to the world of consumption in the form of others snacking, eating, shopping in malls. We can identify various ecologies in the life of the infant and going out into parks, snacking and meeting with friends, shopping in meeting with friends are some of them. If we go out as a family then this suggests there are two more ecologies—getting there and being out. Travelling in cars with the attendant apparatus of the car seat designed either for babies or the older toddler, or using public transport with the problems of finding a place on board the bus to park the stroller provides different social and perceptual environments for the infant. ‘Getting there’ can be a daily hassle or a big event like going on holiday. Social stimuli for the child in these three scenarios of at home , in transit, and being out can vary from the comforting presence of mum and family, through friends and accustomed faces, sounds and smells of mum and other families in friendly coffee shops or in the park or on the beach having a picnic and playing with friends, to stranger places like the metro or bus with odd smells, moving and changing strange stimuli and sounds. The young city dwelling infant will experience a range of emotions produced from the comforting routines of naps and bedtime and meals at home to the different and unpredictable new environments encountered while moving about the urban landscape. Here are three scenarios which might be recognisable to some of you. They are taken from my life in the UK but I hope they resonate with yours although the scripts and actors might be a bit different.
A mother is in a hurry to catch a train with friends. She is poorly dressed and pushes a cheap no-frills stroller with full plastic bags over the two handles. Her baby son is in it, facing forward so he cannot see Mum. He cries and wants to see Mum and is calling out to her but can’t turn round. Mum is engrossed in her smartphone and is looking at it constantly, expertly sending messages. When she reaches the station concourse she sees her friends, parks the baby buggy with a deft flick of her foot, barks ‘stay there’ at her child (as if he had an option) and turns to talk with her friends who are young women of her age. The talk is loud, is about boys, celebrities and smartphone conversations and is full of real or imagined slights from others and what should be done about it. Most people walk past them, avoiding eye contact.
I’m in a supermarket that sells a range of goods that could be called medium to high end. It’s about 11 in the morning and the customers are either men in suits dashing in to grab a few things, or older well-dressed retired people, or younger women shopping. I am with a member of my family and in the corner is a small area with tables and chairs where coffee and cakes can be bought. I am told to sit down and ‘keep a table’ while my daughter goes to get some snacks for us (there is no waiter service). There are several ‘thirty something’ women with young children taking up most of the available space that they artfully occupy with expensive iCandy or Bugaboo child transporters draped with coats. They talk confidently at a pitch which people can hear and can’t avoid so they have effectively monopolised the area. The children are noisy and two ‘new men’ keep the children occupied and talk in the same way to them in what used to be called elaborated code . 15 One of them approaches me and looking at me directly and smiling he says “You don’t mind do you if we take these chairs”, simultaneously sweeping them up and away. I
spend the rest of the day berating myself for not speaking back and rehearsing lines that I might use ‘next time’.
The third scenario takes place on a Stagecoach bus. Stagecoach is a company that has an international reach and you might recognise the description from the following scenario of rural Britain. A bus pulls up at the only stop in a small village near the main town of the region. There are a few people waiting in the rain to get on including a single young woman with a child in a very basic pushchair and some bags for carrying shopping. She looks anxiously inside and is relieved to see there is a space for her and her child. The interior of the buses are designed with room near the front for parking stuff that passengers bring on board but as passengers in wheelchairs have absolute priority by law, our mother and child might not be allowed on and could be cast out into the drizzling rain. The design of the interior of the rest of the bus must have had theatre in mind. Several rows of seats in neat rows face front and as, at the time of writing, people over 60 in England can get free bus travel out of peak hours 16 they are often occupied by older men and women sitting tidily and they are willing to smile and talk to babies . The two back rows face each other and as has been the case since time immemorial are populated with adolescents doing adolescent things like testing the limits. So our mother and child can celebrate their status with a (usually) willing audience. This rosy picture is painted with a certain amount of artistic licence and things might be a little different in towns and cities.