About

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.

Rick has published in marketing, psychology, management, neuroscience, and economics journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Consumer PsychologyOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, the Annual Review of Psychology, and Neuron. He currently serves as an Associate Editor at Financial Planning Review, and he serves on the Editorial Review Boards of the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Consumer Psychology, and the Journal of Marketing Research. His research has been covered by media outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Washington PostNPR, and Harvard Business Review.

He blogs for Psychology Today. At Ross, he has won awards for both research and teaching.

Retail Therapy

Why we shop—and what it means when we do

Rick has published in marketing, psychology, management, neuroscience, and economics journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Consumer PsychologyOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, the Annual Review of Psychology, and Neuron. He currently serves as an Associate Editor at Financial Planning Review, and he has served on the Editorial Review Boards of the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Consumer Psychology, and the Journal of Marketing Research. His research has been covered by media outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Washington PostNPR, and Harvard Business Review.

He blogs for Psychology Today. At Ross, he has won awards for both research and teaching.

Retail Therapy

Why we shop—and what it means when we do