Men also infer that other men with luxury performance cars are oriented towards short-term mating & see them more as rivals and potential mate poachers than as friends

What Do Economically Costly Signals Signal?: a Life History Framework for Interpreting Conspicuous Consumption. Daniel J. Kruger, Jessica S. Kruger. Evolutionary Psychological Science, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40806-018-0151-y

Abstract: Compared to women, men have a greater tendency to make conspicuous wealth displays and typically make greater contributions in non-somatic provisioning. Male resource displays often predict future paternal resource investments; however, some conspicuous displays may function as mating effort at the cost of investment potential. Men who tend to make such displays may have less interest in long-term relationship investment and commitment and greater interest in short-term sexual relationships. Undergraduates read descriptions of two men purchasing automobiles with the same budget. One man purchased a new car for the sake of reliability (frugal investment); the other purchased a used car and allocated the remaining funds to conspicuous display features (new paint, larger wheels, louder sound system). Participants rated each character on life history characteristics, relationship interests, and relationship attractiveness. Participants rated the man who invested in flashy display higher on mating effort, lower on parental investment, higher on interest in brief sexual affairs, lower on interest in long-term committed romantic relationships, higher in attractiveness to women for brief sexual affairs, and lower in attractiveness to women for long-term committed romantic relationships, compared to the man with a frugal investment strategy. Participants demonstrated an intuitive understanding that some male conspicuous displays can indicate faster life history strategies. Human male luxury displays associated with high mating effort life histories may mimic the properties of male secondary sexual characteristics across species, and these displays may be more prevalent in environments fostering faster life histories.

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Effects of socioeconomic status displays on attractiveness have been found in laboratory studies using pictures of luxury and standard apartments (Dunn and Hill 2014) and clothing indicating socioeconomic status (Nelissen and Meijers 2011; Townsend and Levy 1990). Automobiles may be popular as stimuli in studies of conspicuous consumption (e.g., Guéguen and Lamy 2012; Hennighausen et al. 2016; Sundie et al. 2011), because they enable comparisons of luxury and practical attributes (Kruger 2008) and portable displays of wealth are more suitable for establishing initial attraction. As demonstrated by this study and others, even those who do not necessarily have extensive experiences with or knowledge of cars have reactions consistent with expectations. Men are rated as more attractive when standing next to luxury cars than economy cars (Dunn and Searle 2010; Shuler andMcCord 2010). Women are more likely to provide contact information to men standing next to luxury cars than economy cars or mid-range cars (Guéguen and Lamy 2012).Women see men with expensive luxury cars as more interested in and attractive for shortterm, uncommitted sexual relationships than men with economy cars (Sundie et al. 2011). Men also infer that other men with luxury performance cars are oriented towards short-term mating and see them more as rivals and potential mate poachers than as friends (Hennighausen et al. 2016).

[...] Our theoretical framework proposes that male resource displays functioning primarily as mating effort will mimic the exaggerated physiological and behavioral properties featured in male secondary sexual characteristics that facilitate mating competition across species. We utilized personal automobiles in our scenarios because they enable displays that are portable, highly visible, and easily recognized by a wide variety of individuals. There are prolific industries devoted to automotive aftermarket modifications for a wide variety of attributes, including performance, utility, safety, and display attributes. The specific attributes described in the flashy man’s automobile, exaggerated size, coloration, and sound mimic the properties of exaggerated male secondary sexual characteristics across species. Such properties are instrumental in the processes of intrasexual competition and mate attraction and may be especially appropriate for soliciting short-term sexual relationships. Conspicuous features functioning as mating effort may be broadcast to a wide audience, rather than requiring prior knowledge of content or individual reputation. In contrast, displays predicting substantial future resource investment in offspring and romantic partners may be more directed in terms of audience, focused in terms of content, and more dependent on prior knowledge and reputation. These properties may facilitate assortative mating with high quality mates for longterm partnerships. Such resource displays may function as ingroup signals (for those of high social class) and are more likely to be semi-cryptic shibboleths where recognition is dependent on the audience’s prior reputational knowledge. There is a common cultural dynamic where the reigning aristocracy denigrates the nouveau riche for their ostentatious displays of wealth. By definition, these gaudy displays feature exaggerated sensory properties (size, coloration, etc.). Ostentation may be an inherent strategy by those wishing to advertise (newly acquired) wealth and status to audiences where they do not possess the reputational status markers of the establishment.

Of course, commercial marketers may mix these signal channels for the purpose of promoting sales to those interested in acquiring status. Marketers continually invent “luxury” brands that provide higher profit margins on products emerging from the same mass production systems as more proletarian items. These branding exercises often promote an image of economic abundance as well as a façade of tradition and inherited wealth. Contemporary marketers developing new luxury brand names seem to be particularly fond of ampersands, perhaps for their antiquated appearance and suggestion of origins in long-established traditions.

Our life history-based theoretical framework provides both the prediction of and explanation for functional variation in the signal content of male resource displays. This framework proposes that the degree to which male displays reflect high investment in mating effort at the expense of paternal investment will directly follow from environmental conditions fostering faster human life history strategies. The material functional analogues of male secondary sexual characteristics will be more prevalent in human environments with shorter life expectancies, less predictable mortality incidence, lower predictability of access to material resources, lower levels of personal safety, lower social cohesion, and greater socioeconomic inequality. This model also advances the discussion of tendencies for conspicuous consumption beyond Marxistderived explanations based in symbols of social class membership or ethnic group stereotypes. From a life history perspective, demographic categories are crude indicators for meaningful variation in underlying factors. Darwin noted that differences in the mental faculties of humans and other animals are “Differences of degree, rather than kind” (1871b/ 1981, p.83). If variability in psychology and behavior across species is on a continuous spectrum, certainly variation within our own species is along a gradient rather than a collection of types and likely a reflection of facultative adaptations to environmental conditions.