The Role for Signaling Theory and Receiver Psychology in Marketing

Within marketing contexts, messages are effective when consumers find them both believable and relevant. An understanding of signaling theory and signal design features, derived from the study of animal and human behavioral ecology, can help marketers overcome the first challenge of crafting believable signals. Effective signals must fundamentally overcome the skepticism of receivers and generally accomplish this by linkage, either through identity or costliness, to the underlying quality being signaled. An understanding of receiver psychology, which involves appeals based on innate preferences that derive from shared human evolutionary history, can help marketers overcome the second challenge of rendering signals attractive and meaningful to consumers. Sensory bias, sexual stimuli, neoteny, and status all offer ripe opportunities for marketers to appeal to the innate preferences of consumers broadly or to specific targeted demographics. The following chapter provides an overview of signaling theory and receiver psychology as grounded in the evolutionary disciplines, with examples and applications that extend to the business world.