Topic: Consumer Behavior

Illustration of a head with blinders Feature / Behavioral Decision Making

How People Gather Information — or Don’t — to Make Decisions

Personal beliefs, especially among the less educated, often outweigh actual data

Strawberry doughnut in a box Research Brief / Advertising

Inventory Scarcity Messages in Online Retailing Can Backfire

If there are only six left, I guess I won’t be buying a dozen

Foreign pharmacy Research Brief / Retail

Quality and Price: National Pharmacy Chains Benefit Consumers in India

Independent drug stores improve to meet the competition

People on electric scooters Research Brief / Ride-Sharing Services

Scooter Recharging: Should Companies Offer Customers Carrot or Stick?

Operating costs decline when riders get free rentals for docking dying electric vehicles

Person looking at a computer screen Research Brief / E-commerce

That Online Hotel Review You Wrote? It Matters

Consumers’ comments on TripAdvisor are substitutes for traditional ad spending

A couple watching TV Research Brief / Consumer Behavior

Monetizing TV Content: What Binge Watchers Will and Won’t Do

Fandom doesn’t mean blindly following a franchise wherever it ventures or being a vocal cheerleader

Person looking at billboard ads on a wall Research Brief / Branding

Luxury Goods: The Perils and Profits in Lower-Priced Markets

A study uses game theory to suggest when designer companies should license their names for down-market goods

Illustration of a boardroom with members wearing chef hats Research Brief / Management

Origin Story of Products: To Consumers, How Big a Team Seems Right?

Buyers value team over individual effort but are sensitive to invention-by-committee

A girl smiling in front of a calendar Research Brief / Bias

Future Bias Is Present by Middle School

By age 10 or earlier, kids are putting more weight on the future than the past — just like adults

Chalk illustration of a graph Research Brief / Data Analytics

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics — and Data Visualization

How we interpret time-series data is dependent on the designer’s chosen format

Line chart with hearts Research Brief / Time

Our Envy of Prospective Events Is Greater Than of Those Past

That’s helpful information in a social media world filled with friends who do enviable things

Illustration of a face Feature / Behavioral Decision Making

People Don’t Mind Government Nudges, but Prefer Them Free of Politics

When an unloved cause or political adversary is attached to a nudge, the method itself becomes suspect

Illustration of a man walking on a tight wire with a net below Feature / Goal Setting

The Case for Building Wiggle Room into Goals

Aiming high, with some flexibility to trip up along the way, spurs greater success

Person shopping online on a laptop Research Brief / Marketing

Free Shipping: Our Preference to Spend on Ultimate Goals vs. Preliminary Steps

Prerequisites are valued poorly in a series of six experiments

Stack of college textbooks on a shelf Research Brief / Education

Is Anyone Happy about the College Textbook Market?

Buyers find the tomes heavy, costly and too frequently revised, while sellers might like to kill the used book market entirely

Mobile phone using the Yelp app Research Brief / E-commerce

Online Reviews Sway Experiential Purchases Less Than Those of Material Products

Reviews that explicitly talk about objective quality assessments are well received