Hard-Wired For Chocolate And Hybrid Cars?
You now know that genetics plays a role in many aspects of your life. We’ve focused on disease as well as epigenetics. What if genes can decide your likes and dislikes? Do you still have the free will to make choices or do all our consumer choices come down to our genes?
Do any of the consumer styles seem to fit your style? And what can this information be used for?
As always, remember to think critically. This is from a journal article that is to be published. What are your thoughts on what the authors are trying to portray versus the data they actually present?
*Itamar Simonson and Aner Sela. "On the Heritability of Consumer Decision Making: An Exploratory Approach for Studying Genetic Effects on Judgment and Choice." Journal of Consumer Research: April 2011. A preprint of this article (to be officially published online soon) can be found at http://journals.uchicago.edu/jcr.
To sum it up, the study found that consumer behaviors are exhibited more often between identical twins than in fraternal twins, leading researchers to believe that there is a heritable component driving consumer judgment and decision-making. The news doesn't come as a surprise considering that other studies suggest the influence of genes on many other behaviors including sleep and risk-taking activities. However, I'd like to learn more about the study, and specifically its methods and results. Questions that I have include: How strictly were the participants' environments controlled, and if environment was adjusted for between identical twins and fraternal twins. Could the likings of some of the listed items, such as chocolate and science fiction movies, be a result of growing up in an environment that fostered these interests? Were the two populations questioned about their relationships with their twin? I wonder if, for example, a pair of identical twins that grew up sharing a room and were very close would exhibit similar consumer interests and behaviors not because they're identical, but rather because of their shared environment and relationship. As compared to a pair of fraternal twins that grew up in different rooms, sharing different interests and lacking the same type of relationship.
ReplyDeleteIt seems difficult for a study to completely control these aspects without removing and isolating participants, so I'm curious to see how this study managed to control for environmental factors and influences.
I agree with Suzann that there is likely a common-sense connection between genetics and tastes, especially considering the fact that the study used twins. However, twin studies, while very useful in genomics research, are most useful only when the twins are raised in shared environments. Though this study seems to make modest and reasonable associations, especially based on the data, I am unsure how ready we are for such complex studies investigating tastes. So many factors define tastes: environmental, epigenetic, genetic (and there are many different genes that contribute to taste development)that it is extremely difficult to simply isolate genetic effects. Even if the twins were separated, one would have to ensure that they were raised in wholly separate environments (e.g. one twin that is raised in a very protective environment and another that is raised in a very risk-supportive environment), which is extremely difficult considering that growing up with a shared culture almost necessitates some similarities in environment that could confound any genetic associations.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this study does not make very unreasonable claims in terms of data. In the news article, however, they do seem to stretch their findings somewhat regarding consumer tastes. After all, a genetic bias influencing consumerism is something that would very much interest retail and advertising companies.
On a separate note, this is an article published in 2010 by the same authors that provides similar information:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/657022?journalCode=jcr&
I agree with the two comments above. The idea that genes play a role in consumer preference is not farfetched. There have been many marketing studies done on the concept of brand loyalty, so I am curious to how brand loyalty can/is affected be genes. Also, I am curious to see how the future marketing techniques will evolve if more concrete evidence lays a framework for consumer choice and genetics.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is very interesting that our genes could explain our likes and dislikes. We like to think that such things are chosen based on our personality and preference but we never think beyond that. Obviously our personality and preferences come from experience but it is interesting to also think that they come from our genetics as well. I think we still have majority of free will to make choices even if our genes affect our decision making process because I think that nurture has more of a role than nature in this case. I believe I make consumer choices to select sure gains over gambles and I could guess that I do this because my father is the same way. However, the nature vs. nurture debate comes up again. Do I make decisions like my father because I was raised by him to do the same or because I inhereted the genes that cause him to make these decisionns. I believe it is both.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of my behavior as a consumer I think that I am a smart shopper but I also know that I am easily persuaded to buy things from high pressure sales people. If I could find out more infomrtation of my consumer style based on my genes, it might be possible that I could be a smarter shopper by avoiding situatios where the inhereted cosumer behaviors I see as negative, such as giving in to sales people, could be avoided.
At the beginning of the article it states “the effect of being raised in the same family is smaller than the effect of genes” I do not agree with this statement. Although I do believe that genes make up who we are and do influence the person that we mold into, I believe that a person can steer away from genetic tendencies based on the environment in which they were raised. As Amber previously stated, people still have free will. I think that free will can be more powerful than genetics. For instance, if someone is born to two alcoholic parents it is likely he or she will become an alcoholic. However, if the person choses to live alcohol free and not fall victim to alcohol they are using free will and nurture (seeing what they do not want to become) rather than becoming it because it is in their genes. I do think people have genetic tendencies and yes may shop certain ways due to that but overall if a person wis nurtured in the opposite fashion of those tendencies I believe they can change. I also think the article makes reasonable claims and I do not disagree with it completely, but I do feel that it is a very complex topic and will require much more in depth studies in order to make a concrete conclusion.
ReplyDeleteIn Office Hours with Emily, she had me try to post a comment.
ReplyDeleteDo our genes influence our behavior? The news article does not have me convinced, however the journal article has statistics and a discussion that make me wonder. When I think about my personal preferences and choices it is clear that both genetics and environmental upbringing play a large role. My mother always taught me to be realistic about my choices. She taught me to do what I love and strive to educate myself in all ways possible. When I think about how she influenced my consumer behavior, is hard to say whether it was my genes or the environment she placed me in that influenced how I make choices today. When I first read the tendencies the authors of the article discovered that people seem to inherit, it seemed as if all could be influenced by ones environment. I was excited to read the journals discussion portion to see whether or not they brought up the "nurture" aspect of life's choices. According to the article, previous studies suggest that environmental (nurture) factors can affect gene expression and corresponding behavioral tendencies. The authors go on to explain that much more research is needed to truly understand genetics and their role in consumer behavior, though it proves some tendencies seem to be genetically linked.
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting that many posts above bring up genetics and the role it may have in influencing consumer choices and business. I think this article proves useful as it shows that people are genetically predisposed to certain preferences. Using this type of information I wouldn't be surprised if someday companies find a way to target certain groups of people and maximize their profits. Towards the end of the journal article, the author notes that studies regarding the differences between ethnic groups have generated a large amount of controversy…I can understand why that may be, however it would be interesting to know more about whether taste preference differences may be heritable cross-culturally.
If you're interested I would suggest you check this out! It is a cross-cultural twin study from North America, Europe, and Asia and studies whether the Genetic Structure of Human Personality is Universal. (I figure that consumer choices have a lot to do with our personality- and this study examines that!)
http://psych.colorado.edu/~carey/Courses/PSYC5112/Readings/psnStructure_%20Yamagata.pdf
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ReplyDeleteThis article seems to add some substance to the “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” idiom. I think that if genes have any power to determine my likes and dislikes, I believe that that would only be an initial point for my preferences. We can always train ourselves to like certain things and even to do the opposite by disliking some things. Humans are able to go against what their bodies tell them to do, and they do so all the time. So if my genes tell me that I love chocolate, if I have a good enough reason not to eat it, I am fully capable of not giving into the wonderful Dove chocolate commercial that I see on TV. The gene cannot “decide” for me. However, there is also the possibility that there is a combination of genes that lead me to prefer a healthier lifestyle – thus causing me to turn down the chocolate gene.
ReplyDeleteI can see how tastes in foods could possibly be passed down through genes, but I am not too sure that I am convinced about the like of hybrid cars, science fiction movies, jazz, and anything else that is not needed biologically. If anything, the things that aren’t needed for survival may have a genetic relation based upon whatever makes up the intellect of a person. If intellect has specific genetic relation, then a man and a woman who are extremely smart are perhaps likely to pass down to their child the genes that allowed their mental capacities to be the way that they are. If the parents have a gift for music, whatever genetic component that enables them to have a natural understanding of music could be possibly passed down. I think it’s hard to say that there is a specific gene for jazz music that is passed down, though.
This article does not give any actual data that support anything that is said. I would be very interested in seeing the research that lead to some of the conclusions here. Even though there is not data presented here, the authors seem to be confident in what they have given us.
After reading this article, and reading the above comments, I agree with the fact that the article did not cite any actual data to support the conclusions made in the study. I think the validity of these findings are somewhat diminished because there are so many variables that could have affected the outcomes of this study, and the fact that no data was included to back up these findings makes it a little less believable.
ReplyDeleteIn class we talked about how people have very similar genetics, so it is not too far fetched to think that maybe the differences in our genes account for the differences we have when it comes taste and preferences. However; I do believe that the environment that a person grows up in affects the preferences of that person more than the genes he/she might have been born with. Say a person genetically has a preference for chocolate over salty food, but was brought up in an environment where no chocolate existed, only salty food. After living in an environment like that, would that person pick chocolate over salty food when given the opportunity, or would he/she still pick the salty food because that is what they are used to/prefer since that is what he/she grew up with? It would be interesting to see the extent to which both the environment and our genes have an effect on our choices/preferences.
I found the article to be interesting, but I am a bit skeptical about the conclusion that many consumer decisons are due to genetic factors based on the evidence provided by the article. I agree with previous comments that the author did not provide adequate evidence for his assertions. The researchers never mentioned what type of study they performed (experiemental, case control, observational etc.), nor how many participants were involved in the study. The article did not even provide any statistical results.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that genetic factors may play a role in human behavior, but I think that the environment plays a much more significant role. I am curious to know how the researchers of the study controlled for confounding factors. It is hard for the researchers to study genetic factors without considering environmental factors as well. The article mentions that preferences are genetically related, but I would argue that individuals may have the same preferences because they live in the same environment or even in the same home; therefore being exposed to the same things. The nature vs. nuture debate is one that I do not think will ever be resolved, but I believe that the environment plays a larger role in our choices than genetics. A study that would be interesting to examine would be twins who live in different parts of the country and grew up in different environments, and determine if they have similar preferences. If it is found that they had the same/very similar preferences this would support that genetics play a large role in our decision making.
Like many of the comments above, I am also skeptical about the effect that genes have in regards to our consumer choices. As previously discussed, humans have free will to choose their likes and dislikes, despite their genetic makeup. This article takes a stand on the nature vs. nurture debate, concluding that some choices are made based on an individual’s genome. However, in this article, there was no discussion about the details of the twin consumers that were studied. What I would like to know is how big the study was, which can then either strengthen or hinder the author’s conclusion that genes drive our decision making. I disagree with the author’s conclusion and am more in favor of nurture rather than nature. One example would be the power of peer pressure. Specifically teenagers, people tend to like what ever is popular in their friend circle. Whether it is the clothes they wear or the activities they do, people make choices based on their environment and whom they interact with, not because of their genetic makeup. That being said, there is always a balance between nature and nurture, both influencing the course of one’s life and with more research, it can be known just how much of an interaction there is.
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ReplyDeleteLike many of the comments above, my initial reaction was to wonder about the specifics of the study. Did twins have similar preferences because they grew up together in the same environment? And are identical twins simply closer and spend more time together than fraternal twins? The only way to control whether or not the environment determined the similar tendencies, would be to conduct a study between identical twins whom grew up apart and in completely different environments. However, it may be difficult to find enough cases for this particular study.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do believe thst genes play a role in my likes and dislikes and other tendencies, I don't believe that genes are the main factor. Like someone mentioned above, my genes may make me musically inclined, but my environment will determine which genre I prefer. In general, I believe that our genes point us in a general direction, but it our life experiences and choices that mark out specific path
After reading this medical news article I searched for the primary source, that Itamar Simonson and Aner Sela. Further reading described a study of 110 pairs of monozygotic twins and 70 pairs of dizygotic twins found through the International Northern California Twin Registry. I agree with the authors in the fact that as the human genome becomes more translatable to human traits and tendencies, genes could become a valuable component in advertising. However, using gene tendencies as a marketing strategy is not plausible right now. These companies have no concrete proof that this strategy has a return on investment. I believe this article beckons the question of whether genetics allow us make free choices or whether our lives are based off a predetermined list of likes and dislikes. I strongly disagree with this because our environment around us determines so much of our lives, it would be invalid to declare someone’s actions completely dependent on their genes.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, gender and age both play a significant role in marketing to a target market. This is because these are the most visible traits companies to base their advertising. However, as these theories become more accepted, this research could help companies with complimentary purchases or product placement. Even though this is common sense, they may be able to find products that are not normally associated together. I feel as though the researchers have an interesting topic of research, however the actual data is not conclusive enough to have an effect on companies marketing ideas. I will look forward to reading more about how the researchers develop experiments to analyzing marketing and decision-making research.
Here is the full primary article from the Journal of Consumer research if anyone is interested.
http://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/sela/Simonson_Sela_2011.pdf
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