Kaitlin Woolley (on leave)

Biography

Kaitlin Woolley is the David A. Thomas Professor of Management at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. She is a marketing scholar studying questions related to consumer goal pursuit.

Her research is published in top journals including the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Psychological Science. Her work is featured in outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Harvard Business Review. Woolley has won several awards and honors for her research, including the Early Career Award from the Association for Consumer Research and the Society for Consumer Psychology, the Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science, and the Young Scholar Award from the Marketing Science Institute.

Woolley is currently an associate editor for Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. She also serves on the editorial review boards for the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing Research. She is a two-time recipient of the Journal of Consumer Research’s Outstanding Reviewer Award.

She connects with MBA students in teaching the core marketing course and an elective on customer insights. She earned a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in psychology from Cornell University. Her MBA and PhD are from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Education

PhD Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, 2017
MBA Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, 2017
BA Cornell University, 2012

Research

• Eskreis-Winkler, Lauren; Woolley, Kaitlin; Kim, Minhee; Polimeni, Eliana. "The failure gap"Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 130.3 (2026): 485–507
• Bae, Sangah; Woolley, Kaitlin. "Managers Allocate Additional Tasks to Intrinsically Motivated Employees: Exploring Mechanisms, Consequences, and Solutions"Organization Science. 37.3 (2026): 1145-1164
• Woolley, Kaitlin; Giurge, M.; Fishbach, Ayelet. "Adherence to Personal Resolutions Across Time, Culture, and Goal Domains"Psychological Science. 36.8 (2025): 607-621
• Yoon, Ye Rin; Woolley, Kaitlin. "The Interactive Effect of Incentive Salience and Prosocial Motivation on Prosocial Behavior"Psychological Science. 35.4 (2024): 390-404
• Fisher, Geoffrey; Woolley, Kaitlin. "How Consumers Resolve Conflict over Branded Products: Evidence from Mouse Cursor Trajectories"Journal of Marketing Research. 61.1 (2024): 165-184
• Eskreis-Winkler, Lauren; Woolley, Kaitlin; Erensoy, Eda; Kim, Minhee. "The Exaggerated Benefits of Failure"Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 153.7 (2024): 1920-1937
• Woolley, Kaitlin; Kupor, Daniella; Liu, Peggy. "Does Company Size Shape Product Quality Inferences? Larger Companies Make Better High-Tech Products, but Smaller Companies Make Better Low-Tech Products"Journal of Marketing Research. 60.3 (2023): 425-448
• Woolley, Kaitlin; Fishbach, Ayelet. "Motivating Personal Growth by Seeking Discomfort"Psychological Science. 33.4 (2022): 510-523
• Woolley, Kaitlin; Sharif, Marissa. "Down a Rabbit Hole: How Prior Media Consumption Shapes Subsequent Media Consumption"Journal of Marketing Research. 59.3 (2022): 453-471
• Woolley, Kaitlin; Sharif, Marissa. "Incentives Increase Relative Positivity of Review Content and Enjoyment of Review Writing"Journal of Marketing Research. 58.3 (2021): 539-558

Awards

• Dean’s Distinguished Award for Societal Impact Through Service (2026 - 2027) Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
• Research in Practice Award (2024 - 2025) American Marketing Association CB-SIG
• Top-50 Marketing Scholar in Premier AMA Journals (2024) American Marketing Association DocSig
• Early Career Award (2024) Association for Consumer Research
• Best Working Paper Award (2023) Society for Consumer Psychology