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Wendy Liu

Associate Professor of Marketing

Profile

Dr. Wendy Liu is Associate Professor of Marketing at the UCSD Rady School of Management. Dr. Liu specializes in consumer psychology and decision making, focusing on the cognitive, affective and social basis of customer behavior. Her recent research topics include decision making under complexity, the psychology of time and money, health behavior and marketing, and consumer information processing. Her research informs practices in marketing communications, retail and media interface architecture, consumer finance, health, well-being, and work-leisure domains.

Dr. Liu’s research has been published in leading marketing, management and science journals such as Journal of Consumer Research, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Her work has also been featured in the national media, such as Bloomberg Businessweek and Time Magazine.

Dr. Liu teaches the MBA elective course Consumer Behavior. She received her Ph.D. in Marketing from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and was a faculty at the UCLA Anderson School of Management prior to joining Rady.

Publications

Papers

Alison O’Daffer, Wendy Liu, & Cinnamon Bloss (2025), “School-Based Online Surveillance of Youth: A Systematic Search and Content Analysis of Surveillance Company Websites,” Journal of Medical Internet Research, 27, e71998.

Wendy Liu (2024), “Act of Faith versus Voluntary Reciprocation: Asymmetric Commitments in Exchange Relationships,” Consumer Psychology Review, 7 (1), 93-97.

Evan Weingarten, Kristen Duke, Wendy Liu et al. (2023), “What Makes People Happy? Decoupling the Experiential-Material Continuum,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 33 (1), 97-106.

Smitizsky, Gal., Wendy Liu, & Uri Gneezy (2021), “On the Value(s) of Time – Workers’ Value of Their Time Depends on the Mode of Evaluation,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 118 (34)

Smitizsky, Gal., Wendy Liu, & Uri Gneezy (2021, online January 14), “The Endowment Effect: Loss Aversion or a Buy-Sell Discrepancy?” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Mingyu Joo, Wendy Liu and Kenneth Wilbur (2020), “Divergent Temporal Courses of Liking vs. Wanting in Response to Persuasion,” Emotion 20(2), 261–270.

“The Effect of an Interruption on Risk Decisions,” with Daniella Kupor and On Amir (2018), Journal of Consumer Research, 44 (6, April), 1205-1219.

“How Context Affects Choice,” with Raphael Thomadsen et al. (2018), Customer Needs and Solutions, 5 (1-2), 3-14.

“Effect of Co-payment on Behavioral Response to Consumer Genomic Testing,” with Cinnamon Bloss et al. (2018), Translational Behavioral Medicine, 8 (1, January), 130 - 136. 

“Is Planning Good for You? The Differential Impact of Planning on Self Regulation,” with Claudia Townsend (2012), Journal of Consumer Research, 39 (4, December), 688 - 703

“Grapes of Wrath: The Angry Effects of Self Control,” with David Gal (2011), Journal of Consumer Research, 38 (3, October), 445 – 458

“Bringing Us Closer or Driving Us Apart: The Effect of Consumer Input on Propensity to Transact with an Organization,” with David Gal (2011), Journal of Consumer Research, 38 (2, August), 242 – 259

“Variety, Vice, and Virtue: How Assortment Size Influences Option Choice,” with Aner Sela and Jonah Berger (2009), Journal of Consumer Research, 35 (6, April), 941 – 951

“Focusing on Desirability: The Effect of Decision Interruption and Suspension on Preferences,” (2008) Journal of Consumer Research, 35 (4, December), 640 – 652

“The Happiness of Giving: The Time-Ask Effect,” with Jennifer Aaker (2008) Journal of Consumer Research, 35 (3, October), 543 – 557

“Do You Look to the Future or Focus on Today? The Impact of Life Experience on Intertemporal Decisions,” with Jennifer Aaker (2007) Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 102 (2, March), 212 – 225

“A New Look at Constructed Choice Processes,” with Dale Griffin and Uzma Khan (2005), Marketing Letters 16, 321 – 333

 

Book Chapter

“The Benefits of Asking for Time,” in Daniel Oppenheimer and Christopher Olivola (Eds.) (2010) The Science of Charity: Experimental Approaches to the Study of Giving, Chapter 12, p 201 – 215, Taylor & Francis, NY.

Research & Industry Areas

Research Areas

  • Product Perceptions, Preferences and Valuation
  • Content and Choice Architecture
  • Time Usage Behavior: Work, Leisure, Experiences
  • Consumer Financial Behavior
  • Health Decisions and Psychology
  • Consumption and Wellbeing
  • AI versus Humans in Marketing

Industry Areas

  • Marketing Communications
  • eCommerce Interface Design
  • Media and Information Consumption
  • Health Products and Healthcare
  • Consumer Technology Products
  • Consumer Finance