Publication Date
2025
College
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
Document Type
Poster
Description
Social media has been used to share individual hauls of shoplifted items. Research suggests an evolutionary perspective for this behavior, suggesting mate-relevance. Images were collected using Tumblr search tags to examine the cost of stolen mate-relevant verses non-mate-relevant items posted online. The results demonstrate that mating-relevant items are significantly more expensive than non-mating-relevant items. Although the average prices of the stolen items were not significantly high for either category, the differences suggest a mating-relevant strategy for displaying shoplifted items.