Kaitlin Woolley (on leave)

Biography

Kaitlin Woolley is the David A. Thomas Professor of Management at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, where she is a marketing scholar examining how consumers pursue goals and make choices.

She has earned numerous honors, including Early Career Awards 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. She is a two time recipient of the Journal of Consumer Research Outstanding Reviewer Award.

Woolley’s research appears in leading journals, including Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Psychological Science. Her work has also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Harvard Business Review.

Woolley serves as an associate editor for Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and sits on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing Research.

She teaches the core marketing course to MBA students and an elective on customer insights. Woolley earned her bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in psychology from Cornell University and completed her MBA and Ph.D. at 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