Consumer Psychology
How does Amazon convince us to buy things we do not need? How has Netflix managed to get us to spend 18% of our waking hours watching its content? In this course, we will learn the fundamentals of consumer psychology and the ways in which consumer behavior can be influenced. Using social psychology and behavioral economics, we will study how consumers form opinions, make purchase decisions, and advocate for products and causes they care about. We will study examples of interventions by companies and NGOs that successfully influenced consumers’ opinions and behaviors and debate the ethical implications of such interventions. (This course may be used to fulfill a 200 level elective towards the economics major requirements.)