Sydney Scott


Assistant Professor of Marketing

Sydney Scott

Sydney Scott


Area of Expertise


Consumer Behavior and Decision Making

Education


  • Ph D 2017, University of Pennsylvania
  • MA 2013, University of Pennsylvania
  • BA 2012, University of Pennsylvania

Awards/Honors


  • MSI 2023 Young Scholar , Marketing Science Institute, 2023
  • The Cornell Saroj & Vithala Rao Young Scholar Award , SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University, 2022
  • Judith & William Bollinger Fellowship, The Wharton School, 2016

Research Interests


I am an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis. I study how consumers think about natural products, morality and consumption, and health and wellness. For example, I am interested in questions like: When and why do consumers want natural products? How do consumers think about health and well-being? My work has been published in top academic journals such as Journal of Consumer Research, Psychological Science, and Nature: Human Behaviour, and has been featured in press outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and National Public Radio.

I received my Ph.D. in Marketing and Psychology from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in 2017. I graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2012.

Selected Publications


  • "In Goal Pursuit, I Think Flexibility is the Best Choice for Me, But Not for You ", Journal of Marketing Research, with Elanor Williams, 2023
  • "“Good People Don’t Need Medication”: How Moral Character Beliefs Affect Medical Decision Making", Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Article 104225, with Justin Landy, 2023
  • "Consumers Prefer "Natural" More for Preventatives than for Curatives", Journal of Consumer Research, Issue 3, 454–471, with Paul Rozin, Deborah Small, 2020
  • "Actually, Natural is Neutral", Nature Human Behaviour, 989-990, with P. Rozin, 2020
  • "Extreme Opponents of Genetically Modified Foods Know the Least, but Think They Know the Most", Nature Human Behaviour, 251-256, with Philip Fernbach, Nicolas Light, Yoel Inbar, Paul Rozin, 2019
  • "An Overview of Attitudes Toward Genetically Engineered Food", Annual Review of Nutrition, 459-479, with Y. Inbar, C. Wirz, D. Brossard, P. Rozin, 2018
  • "Evidence for Absolute Moral Opposition to Genetically Modified Food in the United States", Perspectives on Psychological Science, Issue 3, 315-324, with Yoel Inbar, Paul Rozin, 2016
  • "Asymmetrical Social Mach Bands: Exaggeration of Social Identities on the More Esteemed Side of Group Borders", Psychological Science, Issue 10, 1955-1959, with Paul Rozin, Hana Zickgraf, Flora Ahn, Hong Jiang, 2014
  • "Psychological Strategies for Winning Geopolitical Forecasting Tournaments", Psychological Science, Issue 5, 1106-1115, with Barbara Mellers, Lyle Ungar, Jonathan Baron, Jaime Ramos, Burcu Gurcay, Katrina Fincher, Don Moore, Pavel Atanasov, Samuel Swift, Terry Murray, Eric Stone, Philip Tetlock, 2014