ASSOCIATION FOR CONSUMER RESEARCH CONFERENCE, PITTSBURGH, PA, OCT 22-25 2009

Decision Science News will return to the city of its birth for this year’s Association for Consumer Research (ACR) conference. Will you?

What:The Association for Consumer Research Annual North American Conference
When: October 22 – 25, 2009
Where: Westin Convention Center Hotel, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Submission Deadline: Monday, March 23, 2009 by 5:00 pm (EST)
Call for papers: http://acrwebsite.org/ACR_Call_09_Final_01_15.pdf
Co-chairs: Margaret C. Campbell, University of Colorado; Jeff Inman, University of Pittsburgh; Rik Pieters, Tilburg University

Conference Announcement and Call for Submissions 
(original here) 

The 2009 North American Conference of the Association for Consumer Research will be held at the Westin Hotel in Pittsburgh, PA from Thursday, October 22 through Sunday, October 25, 2009.

The theme of ACR 2009 is “A World of Knowledge At the Point of Confluence.” Consumer researchers from around the world will meet in the City at the Point, where the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers flow together to form the Ohio River. International consumer researchers will gather in Pittsburgh to share the ideas and data that converge to create knowledge.

The conference format will follow that of past years. A pre-conference Doctoral Symposium will be held Thursday (co-chaired by Stacy Wood and Dave Wooten). Thursday evening will feature an opening reception for ACR 2009. The conference program on Friday and Saturday will include Competitive Paper sessions, Special sessions, Roundtable discussions, Working Paper sessions, and the Film Festival. A Gala Reception will be held Saturday evening at the Senator Heinz History Center, just two blocks from the Westin.

ACR 2009 will provide a confluence of consumer researchers for scholarly presentations, discussions, networking and collaborations.

Format and Program Structure

The conference will open with a reception on Thursday evening (after the Doctoral Symposium). Sessions will be held on Friday and Saturday.

There are five types of submission for ACR 2009.

1) Competitive Papers represent the completed original work of their authors. The ACR conference co-chairs assign papers to sessions that reflect similar scholarly interests.

2) Special Sessions provide opportunities for focused attention on emerging areas of research. Successful sessions drill deeply into a specific issue using similar theoretical or methodological bases, or they promote a confluence of paradigms, methodologies, or research orientations.

3) Films at the Film Festival sessions provide video insight into consumer topics.

4) Working Papers present preliminary findings from the early stages of a research project. Authors distribute their papers, display posters of their research, and are available to discuss and answer questions during the assigned Working Paper session.

5) Roundtables encourage intensive participant discussion of emerging consumer research topics.

Submission and Decision Deadlines

All submissions (for competitive papers, special sessions, working papers, roundtables, and films) must be received by Monday, March 23, 2009 by 5:00 pm Pittsburgh time (EST). In order to maintain accessibility, please note that each ACR participant may present only twice in Special and/or Competitive paper sessions during the conference. When uploading a submission, authors will need to specify the paper presenter.

Notification of acceptance will be made by Friday, July 24, 2009. Final acceptances will be conditional upon receipt of revised documents and copyright release.

General Submission Requirements and Procedures

All submission activity (submissions, reviews and notifications) for ACR 2009 will be electronic, through the conference website at http://www.acrweb.org/acr/.

When you first enter the conference website you will need to sign up:

– Click on the “Sign up” tab at the top right of the page.

– Provide your information (name, email address, etc.) (Note: this does NOT register you for the conference; details for conference registration will be sent out in July 2009).

– To submit the information, click on the “Log in” button and then choose “Submitting Author” as your role. You will need your email ID and the password that you created for your user profile.

– Click on the “Submit paper/proposal” button.

All submissions to the 2009 ACR Conference website require the following information:

• Submission Type: Competitive Paper, Special Session, Roundtable, Working Paper, Film Festival

• Title of Submission

• Primary Contact Information: name, affiliation, mailing address, phone number and email address for the author who is the primary contact

• Content Area Codes and Methodological Area Codes (These are critical for assigning reviewers – please pick codes that provide the best match to your work).

• Word 2003 or Rich Text Format file to upload (Don’t use Word 2007)

• Names of Other Co-authors/Participants and their affiliations, and whether they are presenting author(s)

Note: All authors need to ensure that their names appear in the same way in all submissions. This is because the database will consider J. Jeffrey Inman, John Jeffrey Inman, and Jeff Inman as three different authors.

Time limit. Please note that the website will time you out after 60 minutes. Therefore, in order to avoid losing information, it is best to copy and paste your information into submission fields rather than composing it online.

Acknowledgement of receipt. The primary contact person will automatically receive an email acknowledgement of receipt of the submission. If you do not receive an acknowledgement, please check your spam folder. If you do not receive an acknowledgement within 48 hours after submission, please send an email inquiry about the status of your submission to: ACR2009@katz.pitt.edu

SUMMER WORKSHOP ON DECISION NEUROSCIENCE

The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and INSEAD will jointly host a Summer Workshop entitled “Decision Neuroscience: How Neuroscience Can Inform Behavioral Decision Making Research – Overview, Methods & Applications”.

The workshop is co-organized by Jim Bettman, Joe Kable, Hilke Plassmann and Carolyn Yoon, and will be held in Ann Arbor, Michigan from August 21-23, 2009.

The aim of the workshop is to provide an introduction to the field of decision neuroscience/neuroeconomics for graduate students interested in neuroscience and behavioral decision making, with a particular focus on those interested in marketing and consumer behavior. The workshop will feature lectures and presentations by top researchers in fields related to decision neuroscience, and will also provide opportunities for networking and discussions among faculty and students.

Applications are due February 23, 2009.

If you’re interested in more information, please see
http://www.bus.umich.edu/Conferences/DecisionNeuroscience

Photo credit: http://flickr.com/photos/jacobkearns/318221213/sizes/m/

THE 2009 SUMMER INSTITUTE IN POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, JULY 12-31, 2009

Those interested in Political Psychology should read Andrew Gelman’s blog postings, and also consider attending this:

Stanford University is very pleased to announce that it will host the 2009 Summer Institute in Political Psychology, continuing an annual tradition that was started by Margaret Hermann at Ohio State University in 1991 and moved to Stanford in 2005.

The Summer Institute will offer 3 weeks of training in political psychology for up to 60 participants, including graduate students, faculty, professionals, and advanced undergraduates. The activities will include lectures by world-class faculty, discussion groups, research/interest group meetings, group projects, and an array of social activities.

Political psychology is an exciting and thriving sub-disciplinary specialty that explores the origins of political behavior and the causes of political events, with a special focus on the psychological mechanisms at work. The principal contributors to the field include political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, psychiatrists, and other researchers who cross bridges between disciplines in efforts to enrich their scholarship.

For detailed information and to apply, visit this website:

http://www.stanford.edu/group/sipp

For the best chance to be admitted, submit your application as soon as possible.

DEFAULTS IN BRUSSELS

Last week, Decision Science News spoke at a European Commission conference on “How Can Behavioural Economics Improve Policies Affecting Consumers?“, which was terrifying, as it meant addressing a large room of people with name cards and microphones and simultaneous translators behind glass walls.

The DSN editor tried to emphasize how one must consider the cause of default effects when setting policies that govern which defaults should be prohibited, as discussed in a recent HBR article (Goldstein, Daniel G., Eric J. Johnson, Andreas Herrmann, and Mark Heitmann (2008).
Nudge Your Customers Toward Better Choices. Harvard Business Review, 86(12), 99-105.).

As he was checking into the Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel, he received a brochure with his key card, stating that unless one opted out, a donation to UNICEF would be added to  the hotel bill.

Would you please allow us to add an extra US $1 to your room bill in aid of UNICEF? If you agree, you need do nothing. A US $1 – or approximate equivalent in local currency – donation to UNICEF will be added to your room bill (if you wish to donate more, please tell us). If you prefer, however, not to take part in Check Out for Children, please inform our staff at reception and this donation will be removed

Since most people would probably not choose to make a charitable donation if asked, and since it inconveniences (and probably shames) people to stop by the reception to opt out, Decision Science News wonders if this is pushing things a bit too far. On the other hand, the program has raised $20 million so far …

JDM PRE-CONFERENCE AT SPSP IN TAMPA

The 4th Annual Judgment and Decision Making Pre-Conference at the meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) will be held February 5, 2009 in Tampa, FL.

*Poster deadline has been extended until Monday, December 1st.*  Poster presentation submissions are now being accepted via our website

http://www.socialthinking.org/jdm.html

Ten $200 Student Travel Awards are available to graduate students who are first authors on a poster.

The deadline to register for the conference is January 1st, 2009. For further information, please visit our website: http://www.socialthinking.org/jdm.html

The JDM preconference highlights the emerging nexus of social-personality, judgment, and decision making research. The program consists of invited addresses and a poster session.

Invited Speakers
Gretchen Chapman
Ayelet Fishbach
Chris Hsee
Arie Kruglanski
Rick Larrick
David Schkade
Leaf Van Boven
Kathleen Vohs

This year’s JDM Pre-Conference organizers are happy to field further questions.

Peter McGraw, University of Colorado, Boulder
Rebecca Ratner, University of Maryland
Neal Roese, University of Illinois
Kelly See, New York University

SOCIETY FOR JUDGMENT AND DECISION MAKING (SJDM) AND BRUNSWIK CONFERENCES 2008

It’s not too late to hit the SJDM conference in Chicago (reception Nov 14, conference 15-17th, 2008). If you’re in town early enough (Nov 13-14th, 2008), you may be able to get into the Brunswik Society.

Where:
The Chicago Hilton, Chicago, IL
720 South Michigan Avenue
Tel: 1-312-922-4400

Map

SJDM Conference:
Info
Program

Brunswik Conference:
Info
Program

As usual, Decision Science News will be there, covering all the decision-making action. (Ok, the “talking about decision-making” action).

DECISION SCIENCE NEWS HEADING TOWARD 1000 SUBSCRIBERS

This 100 day moving average of RSS subscriptions to Decision Science News seems to suggest that readership is up, though one cannot know for sure without conducting elaborate significance tests. The site currently gets 3000 hits per day.

Decision Science News was created  in 2004 as a kind of external memory of conference dates for its editor and a handful of professors and graduate students in the once-obscure field of judgment and decision making, so this is rather unexpected.

“Hits” refers to people visiting the site directly through their browser. RSS subscribers, shown in the graph, refer to the number of people who get the sites’ content delivered by RSS feed reader or by email. If you are not subscribed, you may do so in a couple easy ways.

The first is to copy the link under the big orange icon under the word “SUBSCRIBE” in the right margin and then paste it into an RSS feed reader, such as Google Reader, Bloglines (or Bloglines beta), or Netvibes.

The second is to subscribe by email. Just type your email in the box under the words “Get new posts by email”, also in the right hand margin. Once you fill out the verification form, you’ll receive an email that will allow you to confirm your subscription. (If you don’t get it, check your junk mail folder). As the box promises, you can easily unsubscribe yourself anytime.

GERD GIGERENZER ON IGNORING INFORMATION FOR BETTER DECISIONS

Who: Gerd Gigerenzer, Director, Max Planck Institute, Berlin
What: The Rationality of Heuristics: Ignoring Information for Better Decisions
Where: Westminster Business School, Hogg Lecture Theatre
When: 17h15-19h

The academic year in London will get off to a stimulating start as one of Psychology’s leading intellectuals, Gerd Gigerenzer, will take the stage on Tuesday September 23rd, 2008 to kick off the Economics of Behavior and Decision Making seminar in London.

Gigerenzer is Director of the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and former Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. He won the AAAS Prize for the best article in the behavioral sciences. His book Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious was one of six nominees for the 2008 Royal Society Prizes for Science Books. He is the author of Calculated Risks: How to Know When Numbers Deceive You, the German translation of which won the Scientific Book of the Year Prize in 2002. He has published several other academic books on heuristics including, Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart (with Peter Todd & The ABC Research Group) and Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox (with Reinhard Selten, a Nobel laureate in economics), Heuristics and the Law (Dahlem Workshop Reports) (with Christoph Engel), Rationality for Mortals: How People Cope with Uncertainty (Evolution and Cognition), and Adaptive Thinking: Rationality in the Real World (Evolution and Cognition Series).

ABOUT GIGERENZER:
Gerd Gigerenzer’s CV
Through Analysis, Gut Reaction Gains Credibility, The New York Times.
Smart Heuristics: Gerd Gigerenzer at Edge.org
Gigerenzer’s Books

NEW FACULTY OR GRAD STUDENT IN LONDON? JOIN THE EBDM SEMINAR EMAIL LIST:
To subscribe to the seminar series email list, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yvw2sr to opt in. You can easily unsubscribe anytime. Please pass this message on to those who may be interested in joining the email list.

The full schedule of talks at the Economics of Behaviour and Decision Making seminar series is maintained at http://www.decisionresearchlab.com/ebdm/

CALL FOR PAPERS: SJDM 2008 PRE-CONFERENCE. DEADLINE SEPT 1, 2008

Society for Judgment and Decision Making Preconference 2008: Using Human Nature to Improve Human Life. November 14, 2008. Gleacher Center, Chicago, IL.

The University of Chicago’s Center for Decision Research announces that it will host a preconference to this year’s SJDM Annual Meeting, featuring research on how basic knowledge about human nature (fundamental motives, habits, biases, limitations, etc.) can be used to improve individual and social welfare. The preconference will be held on November 14, 2008, and will take place at the Gleacher Center in downtown Chicago.

PRECONFERENCE THEME:

Research on human judgment and decision making has enriched our understanding of some of the basic features and limitations of human nature. People do not operate with perfect knowledge, unlimited mental capacity, complete self-control, or a perfect ability to appreciate the future as much as the present. These basic features of human nature do not make people inherently flawed, just inherently human. Attempts to improve human life require an understanding of these basic features of human nature in order to design policies and interventions that work within the people’s inherent constraints. Public policy has long been guided by a view of human nature provided by homo economicus, but public policy should also be informed by the psychological understanding of homo sapiens. Those designing organ donation policies, for instance, would do well to note that people are heavily influenced by the default option. Those designing savings programs would do well to note that people value future dollars much less than current dollars. And those designing weight loss programs would do well to note that people will eat whatever portion size is placed in front of them. Psychological research has a role to play in public policy debates and in designing social welfare interventions. This conference will provide a forum in which to present that research.

CALL FOR PAPERS:

The Center for Decision Research invites 1-page abstracts for oral presentations of research, which address any systematic human tendency, bias, limitation, or cognitive capacity that can be used to inform interventions or policy to improve human life. Discussion of specific intervention or policy implications is not required, but is encouraged. Faculty members, postdocs and graduate students, and anyone with interesting research to present are all eligible to submit. Submissions must be received by September 1, 2008, and should submitted with your registration for the conference through our website: http://www.chicagocdr.org/sjdm_precon.html

REGISTRATION:

Attendance for the preconference is limited. To reserve a space for yourself, please visit our conference website: http://www.chicagocdr.org/sjdm_precon.html

PROGRAM:

The preconference will last a full business day, organized in two sessions which will feature Cornell University’s Brian Wansink (discussing his work related to obesity and health) and Princeton’s Eldar Shafir (discussing his work on poverty) alongside the other presenters.

Photo Credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/esspea/288035510/

24th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF THE BRUNSWIK SOCIETY, NOV 13-14, 2008

Call for Papers and Participation

Dear friends and colleagues,

The 24th Annual International Meeting of the Brunswik Society will be held on Thursday and Friday, November 13-14, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois, at the Hilton Chicago. The program begins at 12:00 noon on Thursday afternoon, and ends at 6:00 Friday afternoon. We invite papers and/or panel discussion proposals on any theoretical or empirical/applied topic directly related to Egon Brunswik’s philosophy and paradigm. Please send a brief abstract (100 words), and indicate whether the paper/discussion is theoretical or empirical, to Jim Holzworth by Friday, July 18th. Kindly respect this submission due date. The organizing committee is: Jim Holzworth Jim.Holzworth@uconn.edu, Mandeep Dhami mkd25@cam.ac.uk, and Elise Weaver elise_weaver@yahoo.com. The meeting is held concurrently with the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting and just before the Judgment and Decision Society meeting. More details about the 2008 meeting, including registration instructions, will be posted on the Brunswik Society website, at http://brunswik.org.