C.V.

Consumer Psych

An open letter to my students: Create more. Consume less.

An open letter to my students: Create more. Consume less. Dear Students, In my last letter, I urged you to “never surrender” your hopes, dreams, and desires. This letter continues our (one-way) conversation about the perniciousness of your (damn) phones—and presents a path to a more remarkable life. Never have humans

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An open letter to my students: Never surrender!

Dear Students, I am concerned about (some of) you. This letter was prompted by a potential worrisome trend occurring within your generation: doom spending. I get why youthful optimism has waned within your generation. You watched your government botch the pandemic response, robbing many of you of important adolescent experiences.

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An open letter to my students: Write it or regret it.

Dear Students, In my previous letter, I expressed my concern about your phone habits and urged you to put down your (damn) phone and pick up a book and read – a lot. This letter asks you to do something even more difficult: put down your damn phone and pick

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An open letter to my students: Read books, please.

Dear Students, I am concerned about you. We live in a time of unprecedented access to information and entertainment through our smartphones. You have been raised in a digital playground where endless high-quality entertainment is a click away, 24 hours a day. Despite the convenience, it is making you worse

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Pro- or Anti-Valentine’s Day?

Subscribe I was recently quoted in a  New York Times article exploring the increasing demand for anti-Valentine’s Day activities. The author, Isabella Kwai, highlights how the holiday, while still focused on romantic relationships, has expanded to be more inclusive of non-traditional relationships and single people. However, some singles and non-romantics

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Rethinking Valentine’s Day Promotions: IKEA’s Missed Opportunity

Subscribe Valentine’s Day, which traditionally celebrates romantic love, stands as a cultural hallmark that celebrates romantic love in its most traditional sense. Historically, businesses seize the day to target couples with promotions and products. Yet, as societal norms evolve and the number of single adults rise globally, there is an

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Representing Singles in Your Marketing Communications

Subscribe to Single Insights: The Science of Solos This article first appeared here. Imagine an advertisement that shows a woman taking a pregnancy test. What is her relationship status? If you saw her as ‘partnered’, your intuitions are similar to the results of a survey in which I asked everyday people to

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Podcast - I'm Not Joking

Curtain Call

  Welcome to the final episode of I’M NOT JOKING. Comedian JD Lopez returns from Episode 1 to debrief and reflect on Peter’s experience building

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