Scott Rick
Behavioral Scientist, University of Michigan
Highlights
Research
Rick, Scott (2018), “Tightwads and Spendthrifts: An Interdisciplinary Review,” Financial Planning Review, 1, e1010.
Rick, Scott, Beatriz Pereira, and Katherine Burson (2014), “The Benefits of Retail Therapy: Making Purchase Decisions Reduces Residual Sadness,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24 (3), 373-380.
Amar, Moty, Dan Ariely, Shahar Ayal, Cynthia Cryder, and Scott Rick (2011), “Winning the Battle but Losing the War: The Psychology of Debt Management,” Journal of Marketing Research, 48 (Special Issue), S38-S50.
Press
I’m a Saver. My Partner’s a Spender. Are We Doomed?
Slate
A Spendthrift 5-Year-Old? Researchers Say Yes
Wall Street Journal
Is Obamacare Just Bad Branding?
The Atlantic
Scott Rick is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Rick received his PhD in Behavioral Decision Research from Carnegie Mellon in 2007, and he then spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow at Wharton. Rick’s research focuses on understanding the emotional causes and consequences of consumer financial decision-making, with a particular interest in the behavior of tightwads and spendthrifts. The overarching goal of his work is to understand when and why consumers behave differently than they should behave (defined by an economically rational benchmark, a happiness-maximizing benchmark, or by how people think they should behave), and to develop marketing and policy interventions to improve consumers’ decision making and well-being.

Media Mentions
