His Commitment as a Catalyst: Unpacking Women's Luxury Preferences Through Paternal Investment

ABSTRACT While male commitment plays a pivotal role in female mate choice strategies, its capacity to drive women's luxury consumption remains underexplored. Drawing on an evolutionary psychological perspective, this study systematically investigates how perceived paternal investment shapes women's luxury preferences. We theorize that women's perception of high male paternal investment simultaneously activates two parallel psychological mechanisms: a signaling motive and secure indulgence, both of which significantly elevate their luxury preferences. Across six experiments ( N ≈1135), we demonstrate that high paternal investment significantly promotes women's luxury preferences, confirm the concurrent mediating roles of these mechanisms, and rule out the influence of general positive male traits. Furthermore, social visibility, women's perceived economic security, and mate market competition pressure are found to moderate this relationship. This research not only extends the application of evolutionary psychology in marketing but also redefines luxury consumption as an adaptive response to paternal investment, providing novel theoretical insights and practical guidance for relevant fields.