2.
Operative Value and Evolutionary Psychology
The value of any utility is only hypothetical or potential in any situation, except
in the actual moment of the decision to buy, exchange or sell, when the exchange
rate between money and the object is set in the transaction. This applies
to a free market, where buyer and seller both act from their self-interest to gain
from the transaction. The operative value thus is, in every occasion, a consequence
of the immediate situation of the valuing buyer.
Consequently, a behavioural model is needed to understand the value perceived
by the buyers. The Paradigm of Survival is based on the theory of evolutionary
psychology, and is, consequently, a keystone model of this marketing
theory. It has proved itself in practice during more than 20 years.