James Bettman

Academic Area: Marketing

Teaching / Research Interests

Consumer Behavior, Decision Making, Emotion and Choice

Bio

Dr. James R. Bettman is Burlington Industries Professor of Business Administration and a member of the marketing area at the Fuqua School of Business and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. He received both his BA (mathematics-economics) and his PhD (administrative sciences) from Yale University. 

Prior to his appointment at Duke, he was on the faculty at UCLA. Professor Bettman’s teaching interests are in consumer behavior. His research focuses on consumer information processing and decision making, particularly constructive preferences, how decision makers adapt to different situations, effects of emotion and stress on decision making, the role of nonconscious processes in consumer behavior, and how people use consumption in forming identities. 

Professor Bettman''s publications include two books, An Information Processing Theory of Consumer Choice and The Adaptive Decision Maker, and a monograph, Emotional Decisions: Tradeoff Difficulty and Coping in Consumer Choice. His research papers (over 120) appear in journals in marketing, consumer research, psychology, management, and neuroscience. He is a member of the editorial review boards for the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, and Journal of Consumer Psychology. He is an associate editor for the Journal of Marketing Research and has previously served as co-editor for the Journal of Consumer Research and editor of Monographs of the Journal of Consumer Research. Professor Bettman has been recognized for his teaching and mentorship throughout his career. He received the Duke University Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring in 2006 and the NCNB Faculty Award for the Fuqua School. He was also named the Duke University Scholar/Teacher of the Year. He has chaired or co-chaired forty PhD committees at Fuqua and at UCLA. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the Association for Consumer Research. He has received the Converse Award, the AMA/Irwin/McGraw-Hill Distinguished Marketing Educator Award, Consumer Behavior Special Interest Group Lifetime Achievement Award, Harold Maynard Award, and William F. O’Dell Award from the American Marketing Association; a career contribution award from the Society for Consumer Psychology; a distinguished service award from the Journal of Consumer Research; and was awarded the Leo Melamed Prize for outstanding scholarship. Professor Bettman has also shared his expertise through testimony before the Federal Trade Commission, advice to the US Court, Central District of California, and work with various companies.