Nathan Novemsky

Professor Novemsky is Professor of Marketing in the Yale School of Management and has an appointment as Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Yale University. He is an expert in the psychology of judgment and decision-making, an area that overlaps heavily with behavioral economics and consumer behavior. He has published articles in leading marketing and psychology journals on topics that include: how people made judgments and decisions based on the information in front of them, how they know what they like, how the way they frame decisions affects the choices they make, how they choose and evaluate gifts, how their goals influence their behavior and other topics in judgment and decision-making.

He teaches Problem Framing, a course unique to the Yale School of Management. This course teaches managers how to give structure to unstructured situations in a way that maximizes their chances of making good long-term decisions. It also teaches them about how to avoid the pitfalls characteristic of behavioral economics by understanding how natural psychological tendencies can derail optimal decision-making.

He is also an active member of the Yale Center for Customer Insights. As part of the Center, he actively partners with practitioners to develop new insights into customer behavior that are both relevant to practitioners and new to the academic literature. He has also consulted on numerous legal cases (including deceptive advertising and defamation) where a key issue is how individuals interpret information they see in the media and other contexts.

EDUCATION

• PhD, Princeton University
• MA, Princeton University
• BA, Wesleyan University

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Outstanding Alumni Engagement, Yale SOM Alumni Association Regional Chapter Committee, 2014

SELECTED ARTICLES

• Adding small differences can increase similarity and choice J. Kim, N. Novemsky and R. Dhar Psychological science 2013
• Trade-offs and depletion in choice J. Wang, N. Novemsky, R. Dhar and R. F. Baumeister Journal of Marketing Research 2010
• When do incidental mood effects last? Lay beliefs versus actual effects A. Pocheptsova and N. Novemsky Journal of Consumer Research 2010
• Anticipating adaptation to products J. Wang, N. Novemsky and R. Dhar Journal of Consumer Research 2009
• Opportunity cost neglect S. Frederick, N. Novemsky, J. Wang, R. Dhar and S. Nowlis Journal of Consumer Research 2009

SELECTED WORKING PAPERS

• From Loss Aversion to Loss Acceptance: How Casino Contexts Can Undermine Loss Aversion N. Novemsky and J. P. Simmons