Rory Waisman

Research Interests

How do the conditions under which consumers encode, retrieve, and process mental representations of their world influence the judgments, preferences, and decisions that guide their behavior? This fundamental question guides my approach to consumer behavior research. My research draws on instance theories of memory to conceptualize judgments and preferences as arising from the interaction of mental representations of the choice environment with representations recruited from memory. My dissertation research examines the influence of default choice architecture on downstream behavior by investigating how defaults influence the quality, frequency, and intensity of preference updating. In a second stream of research I shed light on how cues from the environment or previous experience influence mental representations guiding maladaptive behavior in gambling, investing, and consumer spending contexts. My third stream of research illuminates  how consumption appraisal is biased by normatively irrelevant mental representations.

In all of my research, I aim to advance theory and to connect it with marketplace realities to reveal practical implications for consumers, firms, and policy makers.  To accomplish these goals, I take a rigorous empirical approach that incorporates experimental methods, eye tracking, field studies, big data analytics, and computational simulations. I utilize survey methods, meta-analysis, and Monte Carlo simulations in my fourth stream of research, which aims to advance statistical methods in the behavioral sciences through development of non-parametric methods and examination of how principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion are best incorporated into data-analytic procedures.

Published Research

Li, Johnson C-H., Marcello Nesca, Rory M. Waisman, Yongtian Cheng, Virginia Man Chung Tze (2021), “A Robust Effect Size Measure Aw for MANOVA with Non-Normal and Non-Homogenous Data,” Methodological Innovations, 14(3), 1-12.

Donkers, Bas, Benedict G.C. Dellaert, Rory M. Waisman, and Gerald Häubl (2020), “Preference Dynamics in Sequential Consumer Choice with Defaults,” Journal of Marketing Research.

Li, Johnson C-H. and Rory M. Waisman (2019), “Probability of Bivariate Superiority: A Non-Parametric Common-Language Statistic for Detecting Bivariate Relationships,” Behavior Research Methods. 51(1), 258-279.

Runner up for the Canadian Psychological Association 2020 Quantitative Methods Research Award.

Three Minute Thesis

At the 3MT UAlberta Finals on April 11, 2018, I presented my three minute thesis "Nudging Sustained Behaviour Change."

View 2018 3MT video: YouTube (3:22)

I was also a finalist in the 2020 3MT UAlberta Competition where I remotely presented my three minute thesis "Confidence from Uncertainty."

View 2020 3MT video: YouTube (3:19)