Franklin Shaddy

Assistant Professor Franklin Shaddy is interested in understanding how consumers form judgments and make decisions in the marketplace. “It’s something we all do all the time — and yet we often have little insight into how we actually make these choices,” he says.

Shaddy’s current research examines goals and motivation, the psychology of bundling, perceptions of fairness, and the causes and consequences of consumer impatience.

For example, one project asks: Why do people often think that raising prices is unfair, but asking people to spend time standing in line isn’t? “After all, this is simply raising a different kind of price,” he says. Shaddy’s research suggests that because time is distributed equally (unlike money), people tend to favor first-come, first-served policies, which require people to spend time. He explains, “It’s easier to tell that someone really wants or needs something when they spend a lot of time to acquire it. That’s less true when someone spends a lot of money.”

Another project examines how people value goals and the means necessary to achieve them. This research demonstrates that people are much more averse to paying for means than for goals, which can result in seemingly irrational decision making. For example, Shaddy notes, “If the goal is to order a book, and a shipping cost is the means to achieving that goal, consumers will actually pay more overall when you ask them to pay for just the book (and throw in the shipping for free), compared with when you ask them to pay for both separately.”

Before pursuing his Ph.D., Shaddy worked as a management consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. At UCLA Anderson, he teaches Marketing Management in the full-time MBA program.

In his free time, Shaddy enjoys visiting breweries, hiking with his Australian Shepherd, and rooting for the Michigan Wolverines.

Education

• Ph.D. Marketing, 2018, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
• M.A. Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences, 2013, Columbia University
• BBA, Finance (with high distinction), 2009, University of Michigan