Rebecca Ratner Directory Page

Rebecca Ratner is the Dean's Professor of Marketing at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. She recently served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the Smith School. Dr. Ratner received a Ph.D. in social psychology from Princeton University, and has been a visiting scholar in the marketing departments of the Harvard Business School, Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business, and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to her position at Maryland, she was assistant professor and associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Ratner has taught courses on consumer behavior, marketing management, marketing for social value, and marketing research to MBA students, undergraduate students, and executives.

Professor Ratner’s research explores factors underlying suboptimal consumer decision making and focuses on memory, variety seeking, and the influence of social norms. Her research has appeared in marketing, psychology, and decision-making journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Experimental Psychology, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Her research has been featured in the media including The New York Times, Washington Post, CBS News: This Morning, and NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. Prof. Ratner has served as Associate Editor at the Journal of Consumer Research and Journal of Marketing Research and co-Editor of Journal of Marketing Research. Prof. Ratner has been elected to serve as President of the Association for Consumer Research (President-elect in 2024, President in 2025, Past-president in 2026).

Honors & Awards

Distinguished Teaching Award, Robert H. Smith School of Business, 2016

Research Communicator Award, University of Maryland, 2015

Allen J. Krowe Award for Teaching Excellence, Robert H. Smith School of Business, 2010

Top 15% Teaching Award, Robert H. Smith School of Business, 2007 - 2012

Best Paper Award (Most Influential Paper in Conflict Management from 1998 – 2001, Academy of Management), 2006

University of Chicago James M. Kilts Center for Marketing, Visiting Faculty Fellow, 2004

Edward M. O’Herron, Jr. Distinguished Faculty Scholar (awarded for outstanding teaching at Kenan-Flagler Business School), 2003-2004

Marketing Science Institute Young Scholar, 2003

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Junior Faculty Development Award, 2002

Best Teaching in Undergraduate Program (Weatherspoon Award for Excellence in Teaching at Kenan-Flagler Business School), 2001

Selected Publications

Ratner, R.K. and Hamilton, R.W. "Inhibited from Bowling Alone" (2015). Journal of Consumer Research. 42, 2015. DOI: 10.1093/jcr/ucv012

Etkin, J., & Ratner, R.K. “Goal Pursuit, Now or Later: Temporal Compatibility of Different versus Similar Means” (2013). Journal of Consumer Research, 39, 1085 – 1099.

Etkin, J., & Ratner, R.K. “The Dynamic Impact of Variety among Means on Motivation” (2012). Journal of Consumer Research, 38, 1076-1092.

Hamilton, R.H., Ratner, R.K., & Thompson, D.V. “Outpacing Others: When Consumers Value Products Based on Relative Usage Frequency” (2011). Journal of Consumer Research, 37, 1079 - 1094.

Fishbach, A., Ratner, R.K., & Zhang, Y. “Inherently Loyal or Easily Bored?:  Nonconscious Activation of Consistency versus Variety-Seeking Behavior” (2011), Journal of Consumer Psychology, 21, 38-48.

Meyvis, T., Ratner, R.K., & Levav, J.  “Why We Don’t Learn to Accurately Forecast Our Feelings: How the Misremembering of Our Predictions Blinds Us to Our Past Forecasting Errors,” (2010), Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139, 579-589 (Lead article).

Zauberman, G.Z., Ratner, R.K, & Kim, B.K. “Memories as Assets:  Strategic Memory Protection in Choice over Time,” (2009), Journal of Consumer Research, 35, 715-728 (Lead article).

Fox, C.R., Ratner, R.K., & Lieb, D. (2005). "How Subjective Grouping of Options Influences Choice and Allocation: Diversification Bias and the Phenomenon of Partition Dependence," Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 134 (4), 538-551.

Ratner, R.K., & Herbst, K.C. (2005). "When Good Decisions Have Bad Outcomes: The Impact of Affect on Switching Behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 96 (1), 23-37

Novemsky, N., & Ratner, R.K. (2003). "The Time Course and Impact of Consumers' Erroneous Beliefs about Hedonic Contrast Effects." Journal of Consumer Research, 29, 507-516.

Ratner, R.K., & Kahn, B.K. (2002). "The Impact of Private versus Public Consumption on Variety-Seeking Behavior." Journal of Consumer Research, 29, 246-257.

Ratner, R.K. & Miller, D.T. (2001) (Lead Article). "The Norm of Self-Interest and Its Effects on Social Action," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 5-16.

Ratner, R.K., Kahn, B.E., & Kahneman, D. (1999). "Choosing Less-Preferred Experiences for the Sake of Variety." Journal of Consumer Research, 26, 1-15 (Lead article).

Miller, D.T., & Ratner, R.K. (1998). "The Disparity Between the Actual and Assumed Power of Self-Interest." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 53-62.