Genes Influence the Way You Shop, Study Finds

Ever wonder why you prefer chocolate to vanilla, sci-fi movies instead of romantic comedies or jazz rather than rock? The reason may have surfaced long before you were born, sprouting at the inception of your family tree.

Researchers recently looked into unexplored heritable effects on consumers' shopping habits and discovered people appear to inherit - through genetics - fondness for specific products such as chocolate, science-fiction movies, jazz, hybrid cars and mustard. 

"(We found) that many, though not all of them, are in fact heritable or influenced by genetic factors," said Stanford University marketing professor Itamar Simonson and assistant University of Florida marketing professor Aner Sela about their findings published in the Journal of Consumer Research. 

Researchers also revealed people seem to inherit other tendencies that affect financial decisions such as choosing a compromise option and avoiding extremes, selecting sure gains over gambles, looking for the best option available and favoring clearly needed options over more indulgent ones. 

Researchers are quick to note they aren't discounting the effects of nurture but rather want to illustrate nurture's and nature's combined influence on consumer judgment and choices. 

"The current research suggests that heritable and other hard-wired inherent preference components play a key role in behavior and deserve much more attention in marketing and decision-making research," they said in a statement. Live Science