SMU Cox School
Faking It: Vivid print ads create false memories of trying nonexistent product
People who read vivid print advertisements for fictitious products actually come to believe they’ve tried those products, says a new study by SMU’s Priyali Rajagopal.
“Exposing consumers to imagery-evoking advertising increases the likelihood that a consumer mistakenly believes he/she has experienced the advertised product,” writes Rajagopal, with Nicole Montgomery, College of William and Mary.
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SMU rises in Carnegie Foundation research classification to ‘high research activity’
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has raised SMU’s classification among institutions of higher education, reflecting dramatic growth in the University’s research activity since it was last measured in 2005.
SMU is now categorized as a research university with “high research activity,” a significant step up from its last assessment in 2005 as a doctoral/research university. The Carnegie Foundation assigns doctorate-granting institutions to categories based on a measure of research activity occurring at a particular period in time, basing these latest classifications on data from 2008-2009.
“SMU’s rise in the Carnegie classification system is further evidence of the growing quality and research productivity of our faculty. We are building a community of scholars asking and answering important research questions and making an impact on societal issues with their findings,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner.
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Posted in Events, Researcher news
Tagged Dedman College, James E. Quick, Lyle School of Engineering, SMU Cox School
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Study: Taboo prejudices can’t hide from psychological testing tool
People don’t like to admit if they are prejudiced, whether it’s against blacks or gays, women or Jews, or the elderly.
But researchers of social psychology have tests that can measure conscious or unconscious bias, and one of them is the “Implicit Association Test.” Developed in 1998, the test asks implicit questions — as opposed to explicit — to expose bias on socially sensitive topics. Worldwide, various IAT versions have been used in more than 1,000 studies over the years. The test’s most controversial finding has been that 70 percent of people tested for their racial attitudes unconsciously preferred white people to black people, but only 20 percent reported such an attitude.
What researchers hadn’t determined up until now is how reliable IATs have been at predicting behavior related to these taboo prejudices. Now they know. SMU’s T. Andrew Poehlman in Cox School of Business was part of a team that validated the IAT’s ability to predict behavior around socially sensitive topics, in particular race.
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Forget brainstorming, try brainwriting!
Given difficult business issues such as rapidly emerging technologies, shrinking budgets and growing global competition, generating creative solutions is imperative for organizations to survive and prosper.
However, the widely used process of brainstorming may not be nearly as effective as a technique called brainwriting, says Peter Heslin, an assistant professor of Management and Organization in SMU’s Cox School of Business.
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Financial-market research nets Venkataraman cash prize
Kumar Venkataraman, in SMU’s Cox School of Business, has received an SMU 2008 Ford Research Fellowship.
Venkataraman’s research has influenced important policy debates on the structure of financial markets and has been cited by regulators with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States, as well as with the Financial Services Authority in Europe.
He specializes in market microstructure dynamics and applying sophisticated models to large databases of financial variables.
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Posted in Economics & Statistics, Researcher news
Tagged Kumar Venkataraman, SMU Cox School
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