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James R. Bettman

Burlington Industries Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Business Administration
Fuqua School of Business
Box 90120, Durham, NC 27708-0120
Fuqua Sch of Bus, Durham, NC 27708

Overview


Dr. James R. Bettman is Burlington Industries Professor Emeritus of Business Administration and a member of the marketing area at the Fuqua School of Business and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. He received both his BA (mathematics-economics) and his PhD (administrative sciences) from Yale University. Prior to his appointment at Duke, he was on the faculty at UCLA. Professor Bettman’s teaching interests are in consumer behavior. His research focuses on consumer information processing and decision making, particularly constructive preferences, how decision makers adapt to different situations, effects of emotion and stress on decision making, the role of nonconscious processes in consumer behavior, and how people use consumption in forming identities. Professor Bettman's publications include two books, An Information Processing Theory of Consumer Choice and The Adaptive Decision Maker, and a monograph, Emotional Decisions: Tradeoff Difficulty and Coping in Consumer Choice. His research papers (over 120) appear in journals in marketing, consumer research, psychology, management, and neuroscience. He is a member of the editorial review boards for the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, and Journal of Consumer Psychology. He is an associate editor for the Journal of Marketing Research and has previously served as co-editor for the Journal of Consumer Research and editor of Monographs of the Journal of Consumer Research. Professor Bettman was recognized for his teaching and mentorship throughout his career. He received the Duke University Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring in 2006 and the NCNB Faculty Award for the Fuqua School. He was also named the Duke University Scholar/Teacher of the Year. He has chaired or co-chaired forty PhD committees at Fuqua and at UCLA. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the Association for Consumer Research. He has received the Converse Award, the AMA/Irwin/McGraw-Hill Distinguished Marketing Educator Award, Consumer Behavior Special Interest Group Lifetime Achievement Award, Harold Maynard Award, and William F. O’Dell Award from the American Marketing Association; a career contribution award from the Society for Consumer Psychology; a distinguished service award from the Journal of Consumer Research; and was awarded the Leo Melamed Prize for outstanding scholarship. Professor Bettman has also shared his expertise through testimony before the Federal Trade Commission, advice to the US Court, Central District of California, and work with various companies.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Burlington Industries Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Business Administration · 2025 - Present Fuqua School of Business
Professor Emeritus of Business Administration · 2025 - Present Fuqua School of Business
Professor in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience · 2008 - Present Psychology & Neuroscience, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences · 2008 - Present Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, University Institutes and Centers

In the News


Published April 24, 2014
Study Suggests Fixing Affordable Care Act's Calorie Range Requirement

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Recent Publications


Product-facilitated conversations: When does starting a conversation by mentioning a product lead to better conversational outcomes?

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Psychology · April 1, 2024 This paper examines product-facilitated conversations. In three studies, we show that the products consumers publicly display influence how other consumers start conversations with them and how enjoyable and self-disclosing these conversations are. Study 1 ... Full text Cite

Celebrate Good Times: How Celebrations Increase Perceived Social Support

Journal Article Journal of Public Policy and Marketing · April 1, 2023 Despite the ubiquity of celebrations in everyday life, little is known about how celebrations may contribute to consumer well-being. In the current work, the authors propose that celebrations promote perceived social support, which prior work has conceptua ... Full text Cite

Boundaries of Constructive Choice: On the Accessibility of Maximize Accuracy and Minimize Effort Goals

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Psychology · April 1, 2021 The impact of decision difficulty on search behavior depends on the relative accessibility of maximize accuracy and minimize effort goals in memory. The default assumption, derived from constructive choice theory, is that maximize accuracy and minimize eff ... Full text Cite
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Recent Grants


Neural Compensation and Economic Decision Making in Aging

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2007 - 2010

Task Stress and Decision Behavior

ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 1994 - 1997

Task Stress and Decision Behavior

ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 1994 - 1996

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Education, Training & Certifications


Yale University · 1969 Ph.D.