Insights from the Animal Kingdom

Just as we have learned a great deal in consumer psychology by focusing on understanding how different sub-groups of humans think, this paper suggests that we can also learn from examining how different types of animals think. To that end, this manuscript offers a review of literature on topics in animal cognition that have also been investigated by consumer researchers. It first reviews research that has identified ways in which animals and humans are similar and then reviews research that has identified ways in which animals differ from humans, with a focus on ways in which some animals have been shown to outperform humans. The manuscript concludes with a discussion of opportunities for future research.