The Impact of the Mate Tactics System onConsumption Behavior

Chen Rui; Jin Chengwen; Zhang Yanning

doi:doi:10.16538/j.cnki.fem.20220611.301

Summary

Romantic relationship or marriage relationship is a very important interpersonal relationship for human beings, which can provide emotional and social support for individuals and play an important role in human reproduction. In recent years, from the perspective of evolutionary psychology, scholars have gradually revealed, deepened and clarified the individual’s acquisition or maintenance of mate tactics and related consumption behavior. Consumption psychology and decision-making behaviors stimulated by mate tactics is a growing research hotspot in the field of psychology and marketing. Related research in China is still relatively rare, and there is little literature that systematically summaries the relationship of mate tactics, the impact of mate tactics on consumption behavior, and the factors that affect mate tactics.

Through the literature review, this paper first systematically summarizes mate tactics and related consumption behaviors by constructing the mate tactics system. The mate tactics system includes mate selection tactic, mate attraction tactic and mate competition tactic in the formation stage of romantic relationship, and mate retention tactic in the maintenance stage of romantic relationship. These specific mate tactics make consumers to adopt specific consumption behaviors to achieve the corresponding evolutionary adaptative purposes. Second, this paper summarizes the external environmental factors and individual factors of the mate tactics system. Different external environmental factors (sex ratio, economic crisis, natural environment, infectious diseases) and individual factors (Life History Theory, digit ratio, female menstrual cycle) affect related consumption behaviors by influencing mate selection tactic, mate attraction tactic, mate competition tactic and mate retention tactic. Third, we believe that future research can be carried out from the following aspects: Deeply investigate the mate tactics system and corresponding consumption; broadly explore the influencing factors; and delve into consumption behavior that affected by the mate tactics system but unrelated to the purpose of mate acquisition and mate maintenance. In addition, values in the new era will affect the tactics of men and women to acquire and maintain a mate. Future research can continue to explore the factors such as cultural values and other personal factors that affect the related consumption behavior of the mate tactics system, in order to verify the effectiveness of evolutionary psychology to human behavior.

The main contributions of this paper are as follows: First, it innovatively constructs the mate tactics system which presents mate tactics and related consumer behavior. Second, it summarizes the external environment factors and individual factors that affect the mate tactics system, which is conducive to a more comprehensive understanding of mate tactics and evolutionary adaptation behavior. Third, it finds the research weakness and future research directions of the mate tactics system. This paper not only provides theoretical guidance for enterprises to discover and utilize consumers’ mate-obtaining motivation or mate retention motivation, but also lays a foundation for researchers to extend and deepen the mate tactics system and related consumption behavior.