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Professor of Marketing
Professor of Marketing
Bayes Business School, City University of London, UK
Bayes Business School, City University of London, UK
Here's my CV.
Contact: janina.steinmetz(AT)city.ac.uk
OCRid: 0000-0003-3299-4858
I am a Professor of Marketing at Bayes Business School in London. A social psychologist by training, I received my PhD in 2014 from the University of Cologne in Germany. Before joining Bayes in 2018, I was a post-doc at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, USA (2014-2016) and an Assistant Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Utrecht University, Netherlands (2016-2018).
My work investigates how consumers think about their own actions. I show that actions done in presence of others (vs. alone) are magnified. Whereas much research in social psychology has shown that people behave differently when others are present (e.g., more desirably), this work implicitly assumes that people’s perception of their behavior remains the same whether they are alone or in social presence. My work has challenged this assumption by showing that actions done in social presence loom larger (Steinmetz, 2025; Steinmetz & Fishbach, 2020; Steinmetz & Pfattheicher, 2017; Steinmetz, Xu, Fishbach, & Zhang, 2016). For example, consumers (falsely) believe that they completed more tasks, ate larger portions of food, and made more errors when someone was present.
These differences in perception have consequences for consumers’ behavior toward others. Consumers magnify their own actions, due to an egocentric focus on their own thoughts and feelings. However, they don’t magnify others’ actions, which has numerous consequences for impression management (Steinmetz, 2018; Steinmetz & Pronin, 2026; Steinmetz, Sezer, & Sedikides, 2017) and for beliefs about being judged by others (Paley, Scopelliti, & Steinmetz, 2025; Steinmetz, 2024; Touré-Tillery, Steinmetz, & DiCosola, 2022).
The differences in how one’s own and others’ actions are perceived also how consumers being inclusive toward others. Although much work on exclusive consumption shows that products become more desirable when not everyone can access them, I find that consumers feel guilty for having something that others can’t (e.g., due to dietary restrictions; Ferreira, Steinmetz, & Scopelliti, under review). Furthermore, consumers strategically use consumption decisions to include others (Wu, Woolley, Steinmetz, & Fishbach, in prep). Because self-other differences in perception of actions rest on an egocentric magnification of one’s own actions, I show that some efforts in impression management, avoiding judgment, and signaling inclusivity are actually misguided and not appreciated by others.
I’m also deeply commited to open science and preregistration and have participated in several large-scale open science projects (Calderon et al., 2026; Huber et al., 2023; Koll et al., in prep). I enjoy science communication with the general public, see here for my regular Psychology Today blog, and for interviews I've done with the BBC, with the podcast 180 Grad (in German), and with Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandfunk Nova radio (in German).
Journal articles:
Journal articles:
Steinmetz, J., & Pronin, E. (2026). The Objectivity Illusion and Perceptions of Online Reviews. Marketing Letters. pdf
Calderon, S., Mac Giolla, E., Ask, K., ... Steinmetz, J., ..., & Luke, T. (2026). Effects of Psychological Distance on Mental Abstraction: A Registered Report of Four Tests of Construal Level Theory. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 9(2), 1-29. pdf
Paley, A., Scopelliti, I., & Steinmetz, J. (2025). Wait or Eat? Self-Other Differences in a Commonly Held Food Norm. Appetite, 212, 108021. pdf
Steinmetz, J. (2024). Too Little Money or Time? Using Justifications to Maintain a Positive Image After Self-Control Failure. European Journal of Social Psychology, 54, 332-340. pdf
Huber, C., Dreber, A., Huber, J., ... Steinmetz, J., ... & Holzmeister, F. (2023). Competition and moral behavior: A meta-analysis of 45 crowd-sourced experimental designs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 120(23), e2215572120. link
Touré-Tillery, M., Steinmetz, J., & DiCosola, B. (2022). Feeling judged? How the presence of outgroup members promotes healthier food choices. Psychology & Marketing, 39, 1504-1510. pdf
Posten, A.-C., & Steinmetz, J. (2022). Who’s a yea-sayer? Habitual trust and affirmative response behavior. European Journal of Social Psychology, 52, 584-596. pdf
Steinmetz, J., Touré-Tillery, M., & Fishbach, A. (2020). The First-Member Heuristic: Group members labeled “first” influence judgment and treatment of groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 118, 706-719. pdf
Hansen, J., & Steinmetz, J. (2019). Motivated level of construal: How temperature affects the construal level of state-relevant stimuli. Motivation and Emotion, 43, 434-446. pdf
Steinmetz, J. (2018). Impression (mis)management when communicating success. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 40, 320-328. pdf
Steinmetz, J., Tausen, B. M., & Risen, J. L. (2018). Mental simulation of visceral states affects preferences and behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44, 406-417. pdf
Posten, A.-C., & Steinmetz, J. (2018). Temperatur und Zustimmung - ein bisher unbekannter Zusammenhang: Einblicke für Praxis und Forschung. Praxis der Rechtspsychologie, 28, 137-152. pdf
Steinmetz, J., & Pfattheicher, S. (2017). Beyond social facilitation: A review of the far-reaching effects of social attention. Social Cognition, 35, 584-598. pdf
Steinmetz, J., & Mussweiler, T. (2017). Only one small sin: How self-construal affects self-control. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56, 675-688. pdf
Steinmetz, J., Sezer, O., & Sedikides, C. (2017). Impression mismanagement: People as inept self-presenters. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 11:e12321. pdf
Steinmetz, J., & Posten, A.-C. (2017). Physical temperature affects response behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 70, 294-300. pdf
Steinmetz, J., Xu, Q., Fishbach, A., & Zhang, Y. (2016). Being observed magnifies action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111, 852-865. pdf
Steinmetz, J., Bosak, J., Sczesny, S., & Eagly, A. H. (2014). Social role effects on gender stereotyping in Germany and Japan. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 17, 52-60. pdf
Steinmetz, J., & Mussweiler, T. (2011). Breaking the ice: How physical warmth shapes social comparison consequences. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 1025-1028. pdf
Other publications:
Other publications:
Steinmetz, J. (2026). The Duolingo taxi text - Could being rude to the driver cost you your dream job? The Conversation. link
Steinmetz, J. (2025). What to do if you fail at your new year resolution. The Conversation. link
Steinmetz, J. (2025). Social facilitation and social inhibition. In R. Prislin (Ed.), Research Handbook on Social Influence (pp. 244-257). Edward Elgar Publishing. Email me for a copy!
Öç, Y., & Steinmetz, J. (2025). WhatsApp introducing advertising is a potentially lucrative but risky move. The Conversation. link
Hashim, N., Scopelliti, I., & Steinmetz, J. (2024). A Conceptual Replication of the Effects of Gamification on U.K. Adults’ Ability to Reach a Saving Goal. In D. Soman (Ed.), What Works, What Doesn't (and When): Case Studies in Applied Behavioral Science (pp. 58-71). University of Toronto Press. Email me for a copy!
Ferreira, K., Steinmetz, J., & Scopelliti, I. (2022). Forgoing consumption of products that others cannot access. Advances in Consumer Research, 50. pdf
Steinmetz, J. (2021). Rapid delivery grocery apps have flourished during the pandemic - but will they permanently change how we shop? The Conversation. link
Steinmetz, J., & Posten, A.-C. (2021). Akquieszenz in Umfragen: Eine wenig beachtete Fehlerquelle. Wirstchaftspsychologie Aktuell. pdf
Touré-Tillery, M., Steinmetz, J., & DiCosola, B. (2020). Feeling judged? The presence of outgroup members promotes virtuous choices. Advances in Consumer Research, 48.
Steinmetz, J., & Posten, A-C. (2020). Guidelines on acquiescence in marketing research. Advances in Consumer Research, 48. doc
Steinmetz, J., & Fishbach, A. (2020). We work harder when we know someone's watching. Harvard Business Review.
Steinmetz, J. (2020). How cameras in public spaces might change how we think . The Conversation. link
Steinmetz, J. (2019). Four common mistakes that can ruin your chances in a job interview. The Conversation. link
Steinmetz, J., & Posten, A.-C. (2018). White lies and black lies: What they have in common and how they differ. InMind Magazine, 37. pdf
Steinmetz, J., Toure-Tillery, M., & Fishbach, A. (2017). Not All Bad Apples Spoil the Bunch: Order Effects on the Evaluation of Groups. Advances in Consumer Research, 45, 248–252. pdf
Fishbach, A., Steinmetz, J., & Tu. Y. (2016). Motivation in a social context: Coordinating personal and shared goal-pursuits with others. In A. Elliot (Ed.), Advances in Motivation Science, 3, 35-79. pdf
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