Scott Rick

Scott Rick is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. Rick received his PhD in Behavioral Decision Research from Carnegie Mellon in 2007, and he then spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow at Wharton. Rick's research focuses on understanding the emotional causes and consequences of consumer financial decision-making, with a particular interest in the behavior of tightwads and spendthrifts. The overarching goal of his work is to understand when and why consumers behave differently than they should behave (defined by an economically rational benchmark, a happiness-maximizing benchmark, or by how people think they should behave), and to develop marketing and policy interventions to improve consumers' decision making and well-being.

Rick has published in marketing, psychology, management, neuroscience, and economics journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, the Annual Review of Psychology, and Neuron. He currently serves on the Editorial Review Boards of the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing Research. His research has been covered by media outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Washington Post, NPR, and Harvard Business Review. He blogs for Psychology Today. At Ross, he has won awards for both research and teaching.

Education

• PhD Carnegie Mellon University (2002 — 2007)

Published Articles and Selected Working Papers

• Olson, Jenny and Scott Rick, “Managing Debt and Managing Each Other: The Interpersonal Dynamics of Shared Financial Decisions”
  Money Relationships, Research, Shopping Debt

• Smith, Craig, Margaret Echelbarger, Susan Gelman, and Scott Rick (2018), “Spendthrifts and Tightwads in Childhood: Feelings about Spending Predict Children’s Financial Decision Making,” Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 31 (3), 446-460.
  Research, Tightwads and Spendthrifts

• Rick, Scott, Gabriele Paolacci, and Katherine Burson (2018), “Income Tax and the Motivation to Work,” Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 31 (5), 619-631.
  Judgment and Decision Making, Research

• Rick, Scott (2018), “Tightwads and Spendthrifts: An Interdisciplinary Review,” Financial Planning Review, 1, e1010.
  Research, Research Highlights, Tightwads and Spendthrifts

• Olson, Jenny, Scott Rick, and Eli Finkel, “A Penny Saved is a Partner Earned: The Romantic Appeal of Savers”
  Money Relationships, Research, Social Cognition

• Madrian, Brigitte, Hal Hershfield, Abigail Sussman, Saurabh Bhargava, Jeremy Burke, Scott Huettel, Julian Jamison, Eric Johnson, John Lynch, Stephan Meier, Scott Rick, and Suzanne Shu (2017), “Behaviorally Informed Policies for Household Financial Decision-Making,” Behavioral Science & Policy, 3 (1), 27-40.
  Research, Shopping Debt

• John, Leslie, George Loewenstein, and Scott Rick (2014), “Cheating More For Less: Upward Social Comparisons Motivate the Poorly Compensated to Cheat,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 123 (2), 101-109.
  Judgment and Decision Making, Research

• Rick, Scott, Beatriz Pereira, and Katherine Burson (2014), “The Benefits of Retail Therapy: Making Purchase Decisions Reduces Residual Sadness,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24 (3), 373-380.
  Research, Research Highlights, Shopping Debt

• Rick, Scott and Maurice Schweitzer (2013), “The Imbibing Idiot Bias: Consuming Alcohol Can be Hazardous to Your (Perceived) Intelligence,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 23 (2), 212-219.
  Research, Social Cognition

• Amar, Moty, Dan Ariely, Shahar Ayal, Cynthia Cryder, and Scott Rick (2011), “Winning the Battle but Losing the War: The Psychology of Debt Management,” Journal of Marketing Research, 48 (Special Issue), S38-S50.
  Research, Research Highlights, Shopping Debt

• Rick, Scott, Deborah Small, and Eli Finkel (2011), “Fatal (Fiscal) Attraction: Spendthrifts and Tightwads in Marriage,” Journal of Marketing Research, 48 (2), 228-237.
  Money Relationships, Research, Tightwads and Spendthrifts

• Rick, Scott (2011), “Losses, Gains, and Brains: Neuroeconomics Can Help to Answer Open Questions about Loss Aversion,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 21 (4), 453-463.
  Judgment and Decision Making, Research

• Paolacci, Gabriele, Katherine Burson, and Scott Rick (2011), “The Intermediate Alternative Effect: Considering a Small Tradeoff Increases Subsequent Willingness to Make Large Tradeoffs,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 21 (4), 384-392.
  Judgment and Decision Making, Research

• Rick, Scott and Roberto Weber (2010), “Meaningful Learning and Transfer of Learning in Games Played Repeatedly Without Feedback,” Games and Economic Behavior, 68 (2), 716-730.
  Research

• Rick, Scott, Cynthia Cryder, and George Loewenstein (2008), “Tightwads and Spendthrifts,” Journal of Consumer Research, 34 (6), 767-782.
  Research, Tightwads and Spendthrifts

• Rick, Scott and George Loewenstein (2008), “Hypermotivation,” Journal of Marketing Research, 45 (6), 645-648.
  Judgment and Decision Making, Research

• Loewenstein, George, Scott Rick, and Jonathan D. Cohen (2008), “Neuroeconomics,” Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 647-672.
  Judgment and Decision Making, Research

• Knutson, Brian, Elliott Wimmer, Scott Rick, Nick Hollon, Drazen Prelec, and George Loewenstein (2008), “Neural Antecedents of the Endowment Effect,” Neuron, 58, 814-822.
  Judgment and Decision Making, Research

• Rick, Scott and George Loewenstein (2008), “Intangibility in Intertemporal Choice,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 363 (1511), 3813-3824.
  Judgment and Decision Making, Research

• Knutson, Brian, Scott Rick, Elliott Wimmer, Drazen Prelec, and George Loewenstein (2007), “Neural Predictors of Purchases,” Neuron, 53, 147-156.
  Research, Shopping Debt

• Hamman, John, Scott Rick, and Roberto Weber (2007), “Solving Coordination Failure with ‘All-or-None’ Group-Level Incentives,” Experimental Economics, 10 (3), 285-303.