Aner Sela
Professor of Marketing, University of Florida
Aner Sela is a Professor of Marketing at University of Florida's Warrington College of Business. He received his Ph.D. in Business from Stanford University.
Dr. Sela is an expert on how people make choices and form preferences. His work highlights how everyday decisions are shaped by people's momentary experiences and intuitions, the technologies they use, and seemingly unimportant features of the decision context.
He has been repeatedly ranked among the Top 50 Most Productive Marketing Authors, and recognized as an MSI Young Scholar (2015) and an MSI Scholar (2020) by the Marketing Science Institute.
Contact Department of Marketing
All research papers are available on this SSRN page.
MSI Marketing Connections Podcast: How Smart Devices Influence Consumers
Selected Publications
Park, Sang Kyu, Taikgun Song, and Aner Sela (2023), “The Effect of Subjectivity and Objectivity in Online Reviews: A Convolutional Neural Network Approach,” Journal of Consumer Psychology (special issue).
Song, Camilla and Aner Sela (2023), “Phone and Self: How Smartphones Influence Self-Expressive Choice and Uniqueness Seeking,” Journal of Marketing Research.
– Press coverage: The Washington Post, ABC News, Futurity
Park, Sang Kyu and Aner Sela (2020) “Product Lineups: The More you Search, the Less You Find,” Journal of Consumer Research, 47 (June), 40-55 . (Online supplement)
Sela, Aner, Liat Hadar, Siân Morgan, and Michal Maimaran (2019), “Variety-Seeking and Perceived Expertise,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 29 (4), 671-679. (Online supplement)
Park, Jane Jeongin and Aner Sela (2018), “Not My Type: Why Affective Decision-Makers are Reluctant to Make Financial Decisions,” Journal of Consumer Research, 45 (August), 298-319. (Online supplement)
– Winner, Society for Consumer Psychology Dissertation Competition runner-up award
– Press coverage: New York Times, USA Today, Forbes, The Conversation, WPR public radio
Sela, Aner, Jonah Berger, and Joshua Kim (2017), "How Self-Control Shapes the Meaning of Choice," Journal of Consumer Research, 44 (December), 724-37. (Online supplement)
– Lead Article
Sela, Aner and Robyn A. LeBoeuf (2017), “Comparison Neglect in Upgrade Decisions,” Journal of Marketing Research, 54 (August), 556-571.
– Press coverage: Huffington Post, Forbes (more Forbes), Boston Globe
Etkin, Jordan and Aner Sela (2016), “How Experience Diversity Shapes Product Evaluation,” Journal of Marketing Research, 53 (February).
Sela, Aner, Itamar Simonson, and Ran Kivetz (2013), “Beating the Market: The Allure of Unintended Value,” Journal of Marketing Research, 50 (December).
– Press coverage: The Marker Magazine
Sela, Aner and Jonah Berger (2012), “How Attribute Quantity Influences Option Choice,” Journal of Marketing Research, 49 (December).
– Press coverage: Marketing Science Institute Selections
Sela, Aner and Jonah Berger (2012), “Decision Quicksand: How Trivial Choice Suck Us In,” Journal of Consumer Research, 39 (August).
– Best Paper Award finalist, Journal of Consumer Research, 2015
– Press coverage: Wired Magazine, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Forbes, The Atlantic, Scientific American
Sela, Aner, S. Christian Wheeler, and Gülen Sarial-Abi (2012), “‘We’ are Not the Same as ‘You and I’: Causal Effects of Minor Language Variations on Brand Perceptions,” Journal of Consumer Research, 39 (October).
Simonson, Itamar and Aner Sela (2011), “On the Heritability of Consumer Decision Making: An Exploratory Approach for Studying Genetic Effects on Judgment and Choice,” Journal of Consumer Research, 37 (April).
– Press coverage: The Times, Time Magazine, The Atlantic, Daily Telegraph
Sela, Aner and Baba Shiv (2009), “Unraveling Priming: When Does the Same Prime Activate a Goal versus a Trait? ” Journal of Consumer Research, 36 (October).
Sela, Aner, Jonah Berger, and Wendy Liu (2009), “Variety, Vice, and Virtue: How assortment Size Influences Option Choice,” Journal of Consumer Research, 35 (April).
– Press coverage: Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe
Courses Taught
“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than being able to decide.”
Napoleon Bonaparte