Kristina Durante

Kristina Durante is Professor I of marketing, Marketing Department Vice Chair, and the marketing Ph.D. program coordinator at Rutgers Business School. Kristina is a social psychologist interested in the biology of decision-making.

Her research lies at the intersection of social psychology, evolutionary biology, and consumer decision-making. Kristina’s research program focuses on how our evolved biology (ancestral ecology and internal physiological systems) and our modern social environment interact to influence behavior.

Kristina’s areas of expertise include women’s consumer choice and luxury spending, family consumer decisions, hormones and behavior, and the psychological consequences of ambiguity.

Her work integrates knowledge from biology with diverse areas of psychology and marketing. By considering the deep historic forces that continue to shape modern behaviors, Kristina’s research provides insight into the underlying fundamental motives behind consumer choice that can guide the creation of successful marketing appeals and workarounds for some of society’s most pressing problems.

Kristina’s work has been published in the leading academic journals in marketing, psychology, and biology. Kristina spoke about her research in a recent TEDx talk. Her studies have been featured in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Chicago Tribune, as well as hundreds of other media outlets worldwide. Kristina spent seven years as an entertainment marketing executive at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Loud Records, and Planet Hollywood before entering academe.

Academic degrees

• Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin; Social Psychology
• M.A., University of Chicago; Social Sciences
• B.S., Boston University; Mass Communication