On Amir

Associate Professor of Marketing

Amir’s research focuses on using psychological and economic principles to identify successful strategies in different consumption environments. He investigates different consumer decision-making mechanisms and their influences on the offline and online marketplaces, on pricing and promotion strategies, on decision making under risk and uncertainty, and on preference dynamics. He also writes about how insights from research on decision making and behavioral economics may be used to improve business practices and policy making. 

Amir has received several research awards from the Marketing Science Institute and from the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation. Prior to coming to UC San Diego, he was an assistant professor of marketing at Yale University. Amir received his Ph.D. in management science and marketing from MIT’s Sloan School of Management in 2003.

Papers

Liberalism and Lifestyle: Informing Regulatory Governance with Behavioral Research, (2012). European Journal of Risk Regulation, 1, 17-25 (with Orly Lobel)

Choice Construction Versus Preference Construction: The Instability of Preferences Learned in Context, (2008). Journal of Marketing Research, April, 145-158 (with J.Levav)

Decisions by Rules: The Case of Unwillingness to Pay for Beneficial Delays, (2007). Journal of Marketing Research, February, 142-152 (with D.Ariely)

The Dissociation between Monetary Assessments and Predicted Utility, (2008). Marketing Science, 27 (6), 1055-1064 (with D.Ariely and Z.Carmon)

In Search of Homo Economicus: Preference Consistency, Emotions, and Cognition, (2009). Journal of Consumer Research (with D.Ariely and L.Lee)

Deciding Without Resources: Psychological Depletion and Choice in Context, (2009). Journal of Marketing Research (with A.Pocheptsova, R.Dhar, and R. Baumeister)

The Dishonesty of Honest People: A Theory of Self-Concept Maintenance , (2008). Journal of Marketing Research, (with N.Mazar and D. Ariely)

More Ways to Cheat - Expanding the Scope of Dishonesty , (2008). Journal of Marketing Research, (with N.Mazar and D. Ariely)

The Most Influential Age Hypothesis: Preference Formation and the Self , (with N.Mazar)

Resting on Laurels: The Effects of Discrete Progress Markers as SubGoals on Task Performance and Preferences, (2008), Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34 (5), 1158-1171 (with D.Ariely)

Stumble, Nudge, Predict: How Behavioral Economics Informs Law and Policy (2008), Columbia Law Review, December, 2098-2138 (with O.Lobel)

Can Uncertainty Improve Promotions?, (2010). Journal of Marketing Research, 47(6), 1070-1077 (with K.Goldsmith)

Tough Choices: How Making Decisions Tires Your Brain, (2008). Scientific American, Mind & Brain: Mind Matters, July 22. 

Motivating Discounts: Price-Motivated Consumer Reasoning, (with E.Dawson)

Innovation Motivation: Behavioral Effects of Post-Employment Restrictions, (with O. Lobel)

Risk Management for the Future: Age, Risk, and Choice Architecture, (with O. Lobel)

Behavioral Economics, Psychology, and Public Policy, (2005). Marketing Letters (Special Issue for the Sixth Choice Symposium), 16:3/4, 443-454.. (with D.Ariely, A.Cooke, D.Dunning, N.Epley, B.Koszegi, D.Lichtenstein, N.Mazar, S.Mullainathan, D.Prelec, E.Shafir, and J.Silva)

Liberating Limitations: Regret and Indecision in Consumer Choice, (with D.Ariely)

Book Chapters

Making Consumption Decisions by Following Personal Rules, (with O.Lobel, and D.Ariely)