Research Interests

I have diverse research interests, reflected in the range of projects described below. In my independent research, I am currently most interested in the emotions that people experience when spending their money.

Ongoing Research

1. After taking money out of an ATM one afternoon, I noticed that I felt slightly poorer because my bank account balance had dropped. I noted that this was strange, as I was actually no poorer - I had simply converted money from my bank account into cash in my wallet. This lead to a research project centered around the question of why parting with money is unpleasant. Given that purchases entail the exchange of one asset (e.g. cash) for an equally valued asset (e.g. a t-shirt), why are they unpleasant?
2. How does the presence of fake news influence consumer response to the COVID-19 pandemic?
3. Most people don't think that politics factors into their purchasing behavior... yet they're more than willing to believe politics influences others purchases. One project investigates this dichotomy.
4. People think that actions that move them towards a goal (e.g. going for a run) are more impactful than actions that move them away from a goal (e.g. eating a double bacon cheeseburger). What makes these perceptions more pronounced?
5. When managers make marketing decisions, does their level of trust in market research depend upon their similarity to the target group? For instance, do managers who feel more similar to the group they are targeting rely more on projecting their own beliefs and less on market research?