Assistant Professor of Marketing
Research Areas
Social contagion and trends; social influence; viral marketing; word-of-mouth; social dynamics; product adoption and abandonment; consumer decision making; identity
Current Projects
What drives word-of-mouth? What leads certain products or online content to be shared more than others? How social networks and product attributes influence social epidemics. Why products are adopted and abandoned, catch on and die out.
Representative Publications
(with Gael Lë Mens)
“How Adoption Speed Affects the Abandonment of Cultural Tastes.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2009).
(with Aner Sela and Wendy Liu)
"Variety, Vice, and Virtue: How Assortment Size Influences Option Choice." Journal of Consumer Research (2009).
(with Lindsay Rand)
"Shifting Signals to Help Health: Using Identity-Signaling to Reduce Risky Health Behaviors." Journal of Consumer Research (2008).
(with Chip Heath)
“Who Drives Divergence? Identity-Signaling, Outgroup Dissimilarity, and the Abandonment of Cultural Tastes." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2008).
(with S. Christian Wheeler and Marc Meredith)
"Cotextual Priming: Where People Vote Affects How They Vote." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2008).
(with Gráinne M. Fitzsimons)
“Dogs on the Street and Pumas on Your Feet: How Cues in the Environment Influence Product Evaluation and Choice.” Journal of Marketing Research (2008).
(with Michaela Draganska and Itamar Simonson)
“The Influence of Product Variety on Brand Perceptions, Choice, and Experience.” Marketing Science (2007).
(with Chip Heath)
“Where Consumers Diverge from Others: Identity-Signaling and Product Domains.” Journal of Consumer Research (2007).
(with Emily Pronin and Sarah Molouki)
“Alone in a Crowd of Sheep: Asymmetric Perceptions of Conformity and Their Roots in an Introspection Illusion.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2007)
(with S. Christian Wheeler)
"When the Same Prime Leads to Different Effects.” Journal of Consumer Research (2007)
(with Chip Heath)
“Idea Habitats: How the Prevalence of Environmental Cues Influences the Success of Ideas.” Cognitive Science (2005)
Education
PhD, Stanford University, 2007; BA, Stanford University, 2002
Career and Recent Professional Awards; Teaching Awards
AMA Doctoral Consortium Fellow, 2006; Marketing Science Institute and Journal of Consumer Psychology Research Competition, Honorable Mention, 2004; Jaedeke Fellowship, Stanford University, 2003
Academic Positions Held
Wharton: 2007-present
Other Positions
Branding/Product Naming Consultant, Lexicon Branding, 2002-2003; Business Analyst, Capital One Financial Corp, 2001; Brand Marketing Associate, Burson-Marsteller, 2000
