Research

A/B tests | field experiments
consumer JDM | choice architecture
consumer priorities | attention
deceptive design | consumer protection

I study consumer decision making, often combining lab experiments with field experiments or A/B tests used in online retail. My work has been published in several outlets including Journal of Marketing, PNAS, Psychological Science, JPSP, JEP:G, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and Harvard Business Review.

Publications

Posner, Nathaniel, Andrey Simonov, Kellen Mrkva, and Eric J. Johnson (2023). Dark defaults: How choice architecture steers campaign donations and refunds. PNAS.

Johnson, Eric, and Kellen Mrkva (2023). When nudges have societal-level impact (commentary). Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Reeck, Crystal, Nathaniel Posner, Kellen Mrkva, and Eric J. Johnson (2023). Nudging app adoption: Choice architecture increases consumer uptake of mobile apps. Journal of Marketing.

Mrkva, Kellen, Nathaniel Posner, Crystal Reeck, and Eric J. Johnson (2021). Do nudges reduce disparities? Choice architecture compensates for low consumer knowledge. Journal of Marketing.

Mrkva, Kellen, Eric J. Johnson, Crystal Reeck, and Nathaniel Posner (2021). Design systems with your most vulnerable users in mind. Harvard Business Review.

Mormann, Milica, Tom Griffiths, Chris Janiszewski, J Edward Russo…and Kellen Mrkva (2020). Time to pay attention to attention: Using attention-based process traces to better understand consumer decision-making. Marketing Letters.

Mrkva, Kellen, Jennifer C. Cole, and Leaf Van Boven. (2020). Attention increases environmental risk perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Mrkva, Kellen, Eric J. Johnson, Simon Gachter, and Andreas Herrmann (2020). Moderating loss aversion: Loss aversion has moderators but reports of its death are greatly exaggerated. Journal of Consumer Psychology. (lead article)

Mrkva, Kellen and Leaf Van Boven (2020). Salience theory of mere exposure: Relative exposure increases liking, evaluative extremity, and emotional intensity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Mrkva, Kellen, Luca Cian, and Leaf Van Boven (2020). Above and beyond the content: Feelings influence mental simulations (commentary). Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Mrkva, Kellen, Jacob Westfall, and Leaf Van Boven (2019). Attention drives emotion: Voluntary visual attention increases perceived emotional intensity. Psychological Science.

Mrkva, Kellen, Mark Travers, and Leaf Van Boven (2018). Simulational fluency reduces feelings of psychological distance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Mrkva, Kellen. (2017). Giving, fast and slow: Reflection increases costly (but not uncostly) charitable giving. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making

Mrkva, Kellen, and Leaf Van Boven. (2017). Attentional accounting: Voluntary spatial attention increases budget category prioritization. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Working Papers (in prep/R&R/etc)

Mrkva, Kellen, Shannon Duncan, Marissa Sharif, and Stanley Zuo. The Confirmation Nudge: How to Change Consumer Subscription Choices. Revise & resubmit (risky) at Journal of Consumer Research

Mrkva, Kellen, Michaela Huber, Tehila Kogut, and Leaf Van Boven (reject & resubmit at JPSP). From mindless to mindful judgment and decision making: Introspection helps people align decisions with their priorities.

Mrkva, Kellen, Jesse Walker, and R.A. Farrokhnia. Effort accounting: People prefer to use hard-earned money on long-lasting products and investments. In preparation.

Selected Research in Progress

The exposure repetition puzzle: Reconciling mere exposure with hedonic adaptation (with Rob Smith and Yuqi Guo).

Are couples more healthy & organic than the sum of their parts? (with Jim Roberts and Meredith David)

Below the scroll: A novel position effect influences online consumer decisions (with Jake Floyd, Yuna Choe, and Ashley Otto)