Neal Roese

Neal Roese is a globally recognized theorist and expert in the psychology of judgment and decision-making. His research examines basic cognitive processes underlying choice, focusing on how people think about decision options, make predictions about the future, and revise understandings of the past. He is the John L. and Helen Kellogg Professor of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and is jointly appointed as Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University. He teaches MBA, PhD, and executive education audiences about the psychology of decision making, consumer behavior, and brand strategy.

Trained as a social psychologist, Professor Roese has published over 80 scholarly articles on research exploring biases in memory and judgment, emotion, consumer behavior, and legal decision making. His research has appeared in the leading scholarly journals of social psychology and marketing, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Journal of Consumer Research, and Journal of Consumer Psychology.

He is widely recognized as a leading expert on hindsight bias, counterfactual thinking, and the emotion of regret, and his 2005 book If Only summarized research and insights from the scholarly study of emotion and decision bias. Earlier, his 1995 book, What Might Have Been: The Social Psychology of Counterfactual Thinking, co-edited with James Olson, set the agenda for years of research on counterfactual thinking. Over two decades, his research has been supported by federal grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada).

A former Associate Editor of the journal, Social Cognition, Professor Roese regularly performs panel and external assessments for the National Science Foundation, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada), and the Israel Science Foundation. Professor Roese currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Management, Psychology and Marketing, Psychological Inquiry, and Social Cognition. Professor Roese is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and was an Associate of the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition to his scholarly research, Professor Roese has served as a consultant and expert witness on legal cases involving intellectual property rights and hindsight bias. His insights have received wide media coverage; recent appearances include CBS News, NPR, New York Times, Guardian, Chicago Tribune, and the Harvard Business Review.

Professor Roese received his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Western Ontario (Canada).

Research Interests

Judgment and Decision-Making; Counterfactual Reasoning; Regret; Hindsight Bias; Causal Inference

Education

• PhD, 1993, University of Western Ontario, Canada
• MA, 1990, University of Manitoba, Canada
• BSc, 1987, University of British Columbia, Canada

Academic Positions

• SC Johnson Chair in Global Marketing; Professor of Marketing, Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2018-present
• John L. and Helen Kellogg Professor of Marketing, Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2013-2018
• Professor, Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2009-2013
• Professor, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, 2009-present
• Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005-2009
• Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2002-2005
• Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Social Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Canada, 2000-2002
• Assistant Professor, Northwestern University, 1994-2000
• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1993-1994

Awards

• Fellow, Society for Personality and Social Psychology