EDUCATION
Ph.D. Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin – Madison (Expected 2016)
Major: Marketing; Minor: Psychology
Dissertation Proposal Defended (April 2014)
Committee: Joann Peck (Chair), Neeraj Arora, Markus Brauer, Evan Polman, Rob Tanner
B.B.A. Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 2010
Major: Marketing and International Business
Graduated with Distinction (top 20% of class)
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Much of my research focuses on nonverbal social influence and its effects on consumer attitudes, perceptions, and motivations. My dissertation explores individual differences in consumers’ comfort with interpersonal touch and investigates these differences in various consumer contexts. I have broad interests in nonverbal communication, sensory marketing, and consumer privacy.
PUBLICATIONS
Luangrath, Andrea W., Joann Peck, and Victor A. Barger (forthcoming), “Textual Paralanguage and its Implications for Marketing Communications,” Journal of Consumer Psychology
Webb, Andrea and Joann Peck (2015), “Individual Differences in Interpersonal Touch: On the Development, Validation, and Use of the 'Comfort with Interpersonal Touch' (CIT) Scale,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 25 (1), 60-77. (Essay 1 of Dissertation)
Peck, Joann, Victor A. Barger, and Andrea Webb (2013), “In Search of a Surrogate for Touch: The Effect of Haptic Imagery on Perceived Ownership,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 23 (2), 189-196.
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MANUSCRIPTS UNDER REVIEW
Webb, Andrea, Joann Peck, and Anders Gustafsson, “Don't Touch Me, But I Might Touch You: Inferences and Effects of Initiating and Receiving Interpersonal Touch,” Journal of Consumer Research. (Invited for 2nd Round Revision) (Essay 2 of Dissertation)
RESEARCH IN PROGRESS
Peck, Joann, Andrea Webb and Victor Barger, “The Persuasive Effects of Touching Courtroom Evidence”
Gustafsson, Anders, Tobias Otterbring, Joann Peck, and Andrea Webb, “A Touching Apology: The Effects of a Verbal and Tactile Apology after Physical Space Violations”
Tanner, Robin J., Joann Peck and Andrea Webb, “Who has the Midas Touch: How Self Esteem Transfers to Touched Objects”
Peck, Joann, Victor Barger and Andrea Webb, “The More You Think You Know, the More You Want to Touch: Haptic Exploration and Subjective Knowledge”
Webb, Andrea and Joann Peck “Not So Anonymous (N.S.A.): “Psychological Effects of Consumer Privacy Violations”
AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND GRANTS
Park Outstanding Contribution to JCP Award 2016
Peck, Joann, Victor A. Barger, and Andrea Webb (2013), “In Search of a Surrogate for Touch: The
Effect of Haptic Imagery on Perceived Ownership”
Best Paper Award, Haring Symposium, Indiana University 2014
Henry C. Naiman Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award, 2014
Wisconsin School of Business
Vilas Travel Award, Student Research Funding, UW-Madison Graduate School 2015
Signe Ostby Distinguished Graduate Fellowship, Wisconsin School of Business 2014-2015
Conference Travel Grant, Wisconsin School of Business 2014-2016
Distinguished Teaching Award, Wisconsin School of Business 2012-2013
Arthur Nielsen Marketing Scholarship, Wisconsin School of Business 2012-2013
Marketing Department Scholarship, Wisconsin School of Business 2010-2014
CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE
Society for Consumer Psychology 2014, 2015
Albert Haring Symposium 2014
Mobile Privacy Summit – Presented by FTC and CA Attorney General 2013
AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium 2013
Robert Mittelstaedt Doctoral Symposium 2012, 2013
Association of Consumer Research Conference and Doctoral Symposium 2010-2014
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Association for Consumer Research 2015
GREAT, Umm, *Eyeroll*: Textual Paralanguage and Its Implications for
Brand Communications
Society for Consumer Psychology 2015
“Imagining versus Experiencing Interpersonal Touch: Discrepancies in Perceptions
of Touch” (work with Joann Peck and Anders Gustafsson)
Society for Consumer Psychology 2014
“Ugh, *Eyeroll*, Brrrrr: The Conceptualization of Textual Paralanguage in Consumer
Contexts”
Albert Haring Symposium, University of Indiana 2014
“Do Not Touch Me…But Please Do: Customer Misjudgment of Comfort with
Interpersonal Touch” (work with Joann Peck and Anders Gustafsson)
Association for Consumer Research 2013
“The More You Think You Know, The More You Want to Touch: Subjective
Knowledge and Haptic Exploration"
Robert Mittelstaedt Doctoral Symposium, University of Nebraska – Lincoln 2013
“Comfort with Interpersonal Touch in Retail Sales Interactions” (work with Joann
Peck and Anders Gustafsson)
Robert Mittelstaedt Doctoral Symposium, University of Nebraska – Lincoln 2012
Discussant for work on visual and verbal processing
Association of Consumer Research 2011
“In Search of a Surrogate for Touch: The Effect of Haptic Imagery on Perceived
Ownership” (work with Joann Peck and Victor Barger)
Association of Consumer Research 2010
“Haptic Imagery and Haptic Interference” (work with Joann Peck and Victor Barger)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Instructor: Consumer Behavior, Wisconsin School of Business 2015
Teaching Evaluation Average: 4.79/5.00 and 4.77/5.00 (Enrollment: 95, 2 sections)
Guest Lecturer, Evening MBA Marketing Management, Wisconsin School of Business 2014
Instructor: Consumer Behavior, Wisconsin School of Business 2013
Teaching Evaluation Average: 4.94/5.00 (Enrollment: 11)
Teaching Assistant: Marketing Management, Wisconsin School of Business 2011-2012
(with Noah Lim and Laurie Brachman)
Teaching Evaluation Average (across 6 sections): 4.82/5.00
Instructor: PEOPLE Program, Wisconsin School of Business 2011-2013
Summer marketing course for underprivileged high school students
SERVICE
Trainee Reviewer, Journal of Consumer Research 2015
Reviewer, Association for Consumer Research 2014
Teaching Improvement Program, Wisconsin School of Business
Co-Chair 2013-2014
Chair 2014-2015
PhD and Research Programs Committee, Wisconsin School of Business
Student Representative 2013-2014
PhD Programs and Research Panel Member, Wisconsin School of Business 2014
PhD Proseminar Panel Member, Wisconsin School of Business 2013, 2014
PhD Student Orientation Panel Member, Wisconsin School of Business 2011, 2014
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Association for Consumer Research
Society for Consumer Psychology
SELECTED DOCTORAL COURSE WORK
Marketing
Marketing 765 PhD Seminar: Marketing Modeling David Schweidel
Marketing 971 PhD Seminar: Inter-Organizational Strategy Kersi Antia
Marketing 971 PhD Seminar: Consumer Behavior Joann Peck
Marketing 972 PhD Seminar: Marketing Strategy Aric Rindfleisch
Marketing 972 PhD Seminar: Consumer Culture Theory Craig Thompson
Psychology
Psychology 530 Social Psychology John Delamater
Psychology 710 Design and Analysis of Psychological Experiments Markus Brauer
Psychology 711 Structural Equation Modeling Markus Brauer
Psychology 930 PhD Seminar: Achievement Motivation Judith Harackiewicz
Other Elective Coursework
Ed Psych 773 Scaling, Factor and Cluster Analysis David Kaplan
MHR 872 PhD Seminar: Organizational Behavior Alex Stajkovic
Journalism 849 PhD Seminar: Mass Communication/Individual Dhavan Shah
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Joann Peck (chair)
Associate Professor of Marketing
Wisconsin School of Business
(608) 262-3603
Neeraj Arora
Professor of Marketing
Wisconsin School of Business
(608) 262-1990
Markus Brauer
Professor of Psychology
University of Wisconsin – Madison
(608) 890-3313
Evan Polman
Assistant Professor of Marketing
Wisconsin School of Business
(608) 262-1942
Rob Tanner
Associate Professor of Marketing
Wisconsin School of Business
(608) 265-3134
RESEARCH ABSTRACTS
Webb, Andrea and Joann Peck (2015), “Individual Differences in Interpersonal Touch: On the Development, Validation, and Use of the 'Comfort with Interpersonal Touch' (CIT) Scale,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 25 (1), 60-77. (Essay 1 of Dissertation)
This research details the development of the “comfort with interpersonal touch” (CIT) scale designed to measure individual differences in interpersonal touch tendencies and preferences. The CIT construct is defined as the degree to which an individual is comfortable with intentional interpersonal touch from or to another person. The scale incorporates the distinction between initiating touch, which is the act of touching someone else, and receiving touch, which is the act of being touched by someone else. Investigation of this construct includes scale development, measure purification, and validation. We situate CIT-initiating and CIT-receiving within an approach–avoidance framework and demonstrate that comfort with initiating touch is more related to approach tendencies such as assertiveness while comfort with receiving touch is more related to avoidant tendencies such as avoiding crowded spaces. While previous research generally finds positive effects of interpersonal touch, we find that these effects, at least in part, depend on an individual's comfort with interpersonal touch.
Peck, Joann, Victor A. Barger, and Andrea Webb (2013), “In Search of a Surrogate for Touch: The Effect of Haptic Imagery on Perceived Ownership,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 23 (2), 189-96.
Previous research has shown that individuals value objects more highly if they own them, a finding commonly known as the endowment effect. In fact, simply touching an object can create a perception of ownership that produces the endowment effect. In this paper, we extend this line of research in several ways. First, we show that haptic imagery, or imagining touching an object, can have the same effect on perceived ownership as physical touch. We then demonstrate that haptic imagery can lead to perceptions of physical control, which in turn increase feelings of ownership. Moreover, the more vivid the haptic imagery, the greater the perception of control and the feeling of ownership. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Webb, Andrea, Joann Peck, and Anders Gustafsson, “Don't Touch Me, but I Might Touch You: Inferences and Effects of Initiating and Receiving Interpersonal Touch,” Journal of Consumer Research. (Invited for 2nd Round Revision) (Essay 2 of Dissertation)
Previous research has generally highlighted the positive effects of interpersonal touch on persuasion in a retail setting. This research examines how an individuals' comfort with interpersonal touch, specifically, comfort with initiating and receiving touch, affects consumer shopping. We not only examine initiating and receiving touch in isolation, but we explore the intricacies of how these two aspects of touch impact one another. We determine the underlying structure of individuals' preference for touch using a latent class analysis and identify four distinct groups as they relate to interpersonal touch. In a lab study that isolates the initiating dimension, we conduct a buyer and seller sales simulation investigating perceptions of interaction comfort. A retail field study highlights the receiving dimension of touch by studying actual consumers' attitudes and behaviors as a result of being touched. We explore underlying internal and external inferences that are made when touch occurs. Our research reveals that Touch Enthusiasts drive the positive effects of touch that are seen in the literature.
Webb, Andrea, Joann Peck, and Victor Barger "GREAT, Umm, *Eyeroll*: Textual Paralanguage and Its Implications for Brand Communications," Journal of Consumer Psychology (Invited Revision Plan for 2nd Round)
Both face-to-face communication and communication in online environments convey information beyond the actual verbal message. In a traditional face-to-face conversation, paralanguage, or the ancillary meaning- and emotion-laden aspects of speech that are not actual verbal prose, gives contextual information that allows interactors to more appropriately understand the message being conveyed. In this paper, we conceptualize and test textual paralanguage (TPL), which we define as written manifestations of nonverbal voice qualities, vocalizations, and kinesics that supplement or replace written language and that can be expressed through words, symbols, punctuation, demarcations, or any combination of these elements. We develop a typology of textual paralanguage and, using data from Twitter, investigate how its use affects the inferences consumers make. We find that textual paralanguage negatively impacts perceptions of brand competence, and this decrease is mediated by the informality of the communication. We also find that if a tweet is delivered by a brand spokescharacter that is already perceived as informal, the negative effect on brand competence is avoided. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
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