Disgruntled employees resemble malnourished algae

Algae under threat become poisonous; Employees under threat become litigious
George ILIEV

(Photo: Algae, Wikipedia)

"When Gulf of Mexico algae do not get enough nutrients, they focus their remaining energy on becoming more and more poisonous to ensure their survival." The algae become two to seven times more toxic when experiencing a shortage of phosphorus, a major nutrient. This protects them from their predators - grazers such as zooplankton.

A similar mechanism is at play when employees feel their job is under threat. Such employees often become litigious in order to keep their job or to extract the maximum compensation.

Advertising helps humans surmount two evolutionary obstacles in food selection

A product that looks too different is either not noticed or consciously shunned
George ILIEV

(Photo: Fruit Loops, Wikipedia)

If something looks unfamiliar, it does not get eaten. Animals avoid eating unfamiliar berries or insects for two reasons: "dietary wariness" (fear of eating something poisonous) and "apostatic predation" (difficulty to spot prey that looks too different).

Humans in the supermarket do not need to worry about poisonous berries or insects, though high fat or sugar content may be almost equally undesirable characteristics of a food product. On the other hand, apostatic predation is something consumers often fall victim to, e.g. when unsuccessfully hunting for a familiar product whose package has been changed by the manufacturer.

This is where advertising steps in: by creating awareness for a cereal product, a commercial makes it both acceptable (i.e. reassuring that it is not harmful) and easy to spot among the packages of fried crickets and roasted beetles that British supermarkets regularly stock up. Looking too different and unfamiliar would help a package of cornflakes hang on to the supermarket shelf not for the love of marketing but for evolutionary reasons.