Why “Unreasonable?”

Jonah Berger is an internationally bestselling author, and a world‐renowned expert on change, influence, word of mouth, natural language processing, consumer behavior, and how products, ideas, and behaviors catch on. He has published over 50 articles in top-tier academic journals, teaches Wharton’s highest rated online course, and popular accounts of his work often appear in places like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. Over a million copies of his books, Contagious, Invisible Influence, and The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind are in print in over 35 countries around the world. Berger often keynotes major conferences and events like SXSW and Cannes Lions, advises various early-stage companies, and consults for organizations like Apple, Google, Nike, Amazon, GE, 3M, and The Gates Foundation.

Dr. Keisha Cutright is a Marketing professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and an expert in consumer psychology. Her research explores the fundamental drivers of consumer behavior, with particular attention to issues such as personal control, religion, and self-care. She is interested in the implications of such for both brand-building and consumer well-being, and has enjoyed the opportunity to engage with brand teams, academics, clergy and consumers across the world in these areas.

Cutright has published her research in top-tier academic journals and currently serves as an Associate Editor for two of the leading consumer research journals. Popular accounts of her work have been covered by outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Science Daily, NewsWeek, TIME, and Fast Company.

Prior to beginning her career in academia, Cutright worked in brand management at Procter and Gamble—where her commitment to better understanding consumers and their interactions with brands was firmly established. She has taught courses in Marketing Management, Branding, and Consumer Behavior to graduate students and executives and was previously named one of the world’s best 40 b-school professors under the age of 40 by Poets and Quants.

Lawrence Williams is a consumer psychologist who studies the influences of emotions, environments, and goals on behavior. As an associate professor of Marketing at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder, he has devoted his career to understanding when, why, and how nonconscious, beneath-the-surface influences shape action.

In his research, he has explored what makes things funny, why bodily states shape mental outcomes, and how people find pleasure in unpleasant experiences. Recently, he has turned his attention toward understanding how consumers’ choices are impacted by the pursuit of meaning in life.

His papers have been published in the Journal of Consumer Research, Psychological Science, and Science, amongst other outlets. Popular press accounts of his work have appeared in the New York Times, NPR, BBC News, and Harvard Business Review. Currently he serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Consumer Research. He chairs the business communications faculty, teaches a PhD course on consumer behavior, and was recognized as a top MBA teacher in 2020. He completed his doctoral studies at Yale University.

Paul Bloom studies how children and adults make sense of the world, with special focus on pleasure, morality, religion, fiction, and art. He has won numerous awards for his research and teaching. He is past-president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and co-editor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. He has written for scientific journals such as Nature and Science, and for popular outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly. He is the author of six books, including his forthcoming, The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning.

Tari Dagogo-Jack examines how consumers make temporal judgments and the psychological factors that influence perceptions of change in ourselves, products, and brands. He also explores the conscious and nonconscious effects of brand identity elements (e.g., logos) and self-brand connection. Tari’s research has been published in academic journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of Consumer Psychology, and has also been covered in practitioner-oriented outlets like Harvard Business Review. Furthermore, his work has been cited in mainstream media outlets including The Washington Post and Sports Illustrated.

Prior to joining the faculty at UGA, Tari spent a year as a Vice President in the Ipsos Behavioral Science Center and four years as a professor at the Boston College Carroll School of Management. He holds a PhD in marketing and an MSc in business administration from the University of Washington and an AB in economics from Harvard University.

Susana Martinez-Conde is an award-winning neuroscientist, author, and professor at the State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences University. She is the founder and Executive Director of the annual Best Illusion of the Year Contest, which inspired her most recent book, Champions of Illusion. Her first book, the international bestseller Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions, was published by Holt and won the Prisma Prize for Best Science Book of the Year.

Martinez-Conde is one of the premier science communicators in the U.S. and has made television appearances on National Geographic Channel’s Redesign My Brain, Discovery Channel’s Head Games, The Daily Planet, PBS’s NOVA:scienceNow, StarTalk, CBS Sunday Morning, and a recent episode of The World According to Jeff Goldblum. She is a columnist on "Illusions" for Scientific American, and additionally writes for publications such as The New York Times, The Sunday Times (London), New Scientist, American Scientist, Mental Floss, and How It Works. Her research and scientific communication activities have been featured in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among hundreds of media stories worldwide. She has published over a hundred academic articles in the most prestigious scientific journals in the world, including Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, Nature Reviews and Neuroscience.

Jennifer Beer studies how self-processes, emotion processes and social cognition contribute to appropriate social functioning. Dr. Beer co-founded the Social Affective Neuroscience Society, served as its first President and directs the Self-Regulation Lab where she combines psychology and neuroscience to understand how people’s personal identity helps them succeed or fail in achieving their goals.

Her research papers have been published in the top scientific journals including Science and Nature Neuroscience. News outlets in the United States, Canada, and Germany have covered her research.

Dr. Beer has consulted with State Supreme Court judges and taught workshops all around the world for industry professionals on topics ranging from leadership development to using psychology to boost consumer relations. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.