Uma Karmarkar

Uma R. Karmarkar combines methods from consumer psychology and behavioral economics with neuroimaging to develop theory-driven frameworks about how people make decisions that build from brain to behavior.

She is an assistant professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy and holds a joint appointment with the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego. At GPS, she teaches courses including Marketplace Behavior and Survey Methods, as well as Marketing.

Karmarkar’s research broadly looks at how people use information in the world around them to estimate value and make everyday choices. In one stream of her work, she investigates how individuals use the limited information available in uncertain situations to make choices, like financial investments. In a second stream, she examines how the timing and context-dependent framing of information influences decision-making in marketplace settings. Prior to joining UC San Diego, Karmarkar was a visiting professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and an assistant professor in marketing at the Harvard Business School.

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Stanford Graduate School of Business (2006 — 2011)
• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) UCLA (1998 — 2004)
• Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Stanford University (1994 — 1998)

Research Areas

• Consumer Behavior
• Uncertainty
• Judgment and Decision-Making
• Neuroeconomics

Industry Areas

• E-commerce
• Cybersecurity
• Retail
• New Product Innovation
• Technology

Journal Articles (Google Scholar)

Karmarkar, U.R., Carroll, A. L., Burke, M., Hijikata, S. (2021) Category congruence of "display-only" products influences attention and purchase decisions. Frontiers in Neuroscience.

Clithero, J., Karmarkar, U. R., & Hsu, M. (2021). Toward an Integrative Conceptualization of Maladaptive Consumer Behavior. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.

Dellaert, B., Shu, S.B., Arentze, T., Baker, T., Diehl, K., Donkers, B., Fast, N., Häubl, G., Johnson, H., Karmarkar, U. and Oppewal, H. (2020) Consumer Decisions with Artificially Intelligent Voice Assistants. Marketing Letters: a journal of research in marketing.

Shenhav, A., Karmarkar, U.R. (2019) Dissociable components of of the reward circuit are involved in appraisal versus choice. Scientific Reports 9, Article number: 1958.

O’Connor, S., Sonni, A., Karmarkar, U., & Spencer, R. M. (2018). Naps do not change delay discounting behavior in young adults. Frontiers in Psychology, 9.

Shenhav, A., Dean Wolf, C. K., & Karmarkar, U. R. (2018). The evil of banality: When choosing between the mundane feels like choosing between the worst. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147(12), 1892-1904. PsyArXiv,

Karmarkar UR, Plassmann H. (2017) Consumer Neuroscience : Past, Present and Future. Organizational Research Methods

Buckholtz JW, Karmarkar UR, Ye S, Brennan G, Baskin-Sommers A. (2017) Blunted ambiguity aversion during cost-benefit decisions in antisocial individuals. Scientific Reports, 7.

Karmarkar UR. (2016) The impact of ‘display-set’ options on decision-making. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making

Karmarkar UR, Yoon C. (2016) Consumer neuroscience: Advances in understanding consumer psychology. Current Opinion in Psychology 10, 160-165.

Karmarkar UR, Shiv B, Spencer, RMC. (2015) Should you sleep on it? The effects of overnight sleep on subjective preference-based choice. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making.

Peysakhovich A, Karmarkar UR. (2015) Asymmetric effects of favorable and unfavorable information on decision-making under ambiguity. Management Science (62(8): 2163-2178

Karmarkar UR, Shiv B, Knutson B. (2015) Cost conscious? The neural and behavioral impact of price primacy on decision-making. Journal of Marketing Research 52(4): 467-481.

Karmarkar UR, Bollinger B. (2015) BYOB: How bringing your own shopping bags leads to treating yourself and the environment. (Lead article) Journal of Marketing 79(4): 1-15.

Smidts A, Hsu M, Sanfey AG, Boksem, MA, Ebstein, RB, Huettel SA, Kable JW, Karmarkar UR, ... & Yoon, C. (2014). Advancing consumer neuroscience. Marketing Letters, 1-11.

Karmarkar UR. (2011) Defining the contributions of network clock models to millisecond timing. Front. Integr. Neurosci. 5:41.

Karmarkar UR, Tormala ZL. (2010) Believe me, I have no idea what I’m talking about: The effects of source certainty on consumer involvement and persuasion. Journal of Consumer Research 36(6):1033-49.

Spencer RMC, Karmarkar U, Ivry, RB. (2009) Evaluating dedicated and intrinsic models of temporal encoding by varying context. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. 1525: 1853-1863.

Karmarkar UR, Buonomano, DV. (2007) Timing in the absence of clocks: encoding time in neural network states. Neuron. 53(3):427-38. (Includes cover illustration)

Karmarkar UR, Dan Y. (2006) Experience dependent plasticity in adult visual cortex. Neuron. 52(4): 577-85.

Karmarkar UR, Buonomano DV. (2006) Different forms of homeostatic plasticity are engaged with distinct temporal profiles. Eur. J. Neurosci. 23(6):1575-84.

Karmarkar U, Dan Y. (2005) One circuit, two kinds of timing. Neuron. 48(2):165-6.

Karmarkar UR, Buonomano DV. (2003) Temporal specificity of perceptual learning in an auditory discrimination task. Learning and Memory. 10:141-147. (Includes cover illustration)

Karmarkar UR, Najarian M, Buonomano DV. (2002) Mechanisms and significance of spike-timing dependent plasticity. Biological Cybernetics. 87:373-382.

Karmarkar UR, Buonomano DV. (2002) A model of spike-timing dependent plasticity: One or two coincidence detectors? J. Neurophys. 88(1):507-13.

Buonomano DV, Karmarkar UR. (2002) How do we tell time? Neuroscientist. 8(1): 42-51.

Bookheimer SY, Dapretto M, Karmarkar U. (1999) Functional MRI in children with epilepsy. Dev. Neurosci. 21: 191-9.

Aphasizhev R, Karmarkar U, Simpson L. (1998) Are tRNAs imported into the mitochondria of kinetoplastid protozoa as 5' extended precursors? Molec. and Biochem. Parasitology. 93: 73-80.

Chapters

Karmarkar UR, Jenkins AC. (2020) Neural and Behavioral Insights Into Online Trust and Uncertainty. In JT Martineau, E Racine (Eds.) Organizational Neuroethics. (pp 191-207) Springer.

Plassmann H, Karmarkar UR. (2015) Consumer Neuroscience: Revealing meaningful relationships between brain and consumer behavior. In C Lamberton, M Norton, D Rucker (Eds.) Cambridge Handbook of Consumer Psychology. Cambridge University Press.

Karmarkar US, Karmarkar UR. (2014) Customer experience and service design. In E Baglieri and US Karmarkar (Eds), Managing Consumer Services: Factory or Theater? (pp. 109-130). Springer.

Knutson B, Karmarkar U. (2014). Appetite, consumption, and choice in the human brain. In SD Preston, M. Kringelbach, & B. Knutson (Ed.), The interdisciplinary science of consumption MIT Press.

Other Publications

Karmarkar UR (2019) Note on Neuromarketing (Full Update/Revision) Harvard Business School Note 512-031.

Hamilton R, Karmarkar UR. (2017) The 4 Minds of the Customer: A Framework for Understanding and Applying the Science of Decision-Making. MSI Reports 17-109.

Plassmann H, Karmarkar UR, Kessler B. (2016) “Brain Imaging Triggers Marketing Breakthroughs” INSEAD Knowledge.

Karmarkar, UR, Dolan RJ. (2016) "Catalina in the Digital Age." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 516-086.

Karmarkar UR, Plassmann H, Yoon C. (2015) “Marketers Should Pay Attention to fMRI.” Harvard Business Review. Re-released in print journal, 2019

Dolan RJ, Karmarkar UR. (2013) "Catalina In the Digital Age." Harvard Business School Case 514-021.

Karmarkar UR. (2011) Note on Neuromarketing. Harvard Business School Note 512-031.