Aimee Drolet Rossi

Profile photo of Aimee Drolet Rossi
“Despite the significant demographic shift, older consumers have received limited attention in consumer research. This is surprising given that the increasing population of older consumers corresponds to an increasingly economically powerful part of the population.”
 

Professor

(310) 206-4278 No media calls please

Areas of Expertise

  • Behavioral Decision Theory
  • Brand management
  • Consumer Decision-Making

About

 

Biography

Professor of Marketing Aimee Drolet Rossi specializes in consumer decision-making and teaches in the full-time MBA, Fully Employed MBA and doctoral programs at UCLA Anderson. Currently, she is the school’s marketing area chair.

Her research looks at the mental processes underlying consumers’ choices, specifically focusing on decision-making among older consumers (age 50 or older), consumer habits and meta-preferences. “Although there is much debate over the impact of population aging,” says Drolet, “what we do know is that fertility rates are getting lower, people are living longer, and the world population is getting older.”

She co-authored and co-edited The Aging Consumer: Perspectives from Psychology and Economics, named one of Choice Magazine’s Top 10 Outstanding Academic Titles in Business, Management and Labor in 2011. It examines how population aging and the changing consumption habits of older adults may alter the consumer market. Her research demonstrated, for example, that when it comes to goods like transportation services, vacations and food, people tend to decrease their share of total spending as they age. However, for goods like health care, donations and gifts, they tend to increase their share of total spending as they age.

Her latest research focuses on the development of habits and on moderation — that is, avoiding excess in consumption. “It could be any kind of garden variety consumer experience, whether consumer packaged goods or durables,” she says of her research.

Drolet Rossi received a B.A. in classical history and an M.A. in public policy at the University of Chicago, and an A.M. in psychology and a Ph.D. in business at Stanford University. Since arriving at UCLA Anderson in 1997 as an assistant professor, she has won the school’s Eric and E Juline Faculty Excellence in Research Award in 2004 and the Citibank Best Teacher Award in 2008. She is also a visiting committee member at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

Despite being married to fellow UCLA Anderson Professor of Marketing Peter Rossi, who also teaches statistics and economics, she says they don’t necessarily discuss marketing at the dinner table.

“He’s an econometrics expert. If I pick up something he’s written, I can’t even understand it,” she jokes. “All these equations … there’s nothing to talk about.”

They are both avid fly fishermen, enjoying the sport all over the world, from Northern California to Alaska, from Michigan to New Zealand. When she’s not fishing for salmon or trout, Drolet Rossi keeps busy with Mesolithic stone tool taxonomy and curating her TV club on Facebook (favorite shows include X-Files and Arrested Development).

 

Education

Ph.D. Business, 1997, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University

A.M. Psychology, 1997, Stanford University

M.A. Public Policy (with honors), 1993, The Harris School, University of Chicago

B.A. Classical History (with honors), 1991, University of Chicago

 

Publications

Drolet, Aimee, Aner Sela, and Itamar Simonson (forthcoming, 2016), “Construction Disposition: The Case of Compromise,” forthcoming Journal of the Association for Consumer Research

Drolet, Aimee and Benjamin C. Rossi (forthcoming, 2015), “The Role of Personality Variables in the Construction of Preferences,” Legends in Marketing: James Bettman, Sage Publications, Ed. Jagdish N. Sheth

Jeong, Hyewook Genevieve and Aimee Drolet (2014), “Variety-Seeking as an Emotional Coping Strategy for Chronically-Indecisive Consumers,” Marketing Letters.

Neal, David T., Wendy Wood, and Aimee Drolet (2013), “Habits as Self-Regulation: On the Benefits and Pitfalls of Regulatory Depletion,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10(6), 959-975.

Castel, Alan, Aimee Drolet, and Shannon McGillivray (2012), “Beliefs about the Hot Hand in Basketball across the Adult Lifespan,” Psychology and Aging, 27(3), 601-605.

Drolet, Aimee, Loraine Lau-Gesk, and Carol Scott (2011), “Aging and Preferences for Sequences of Mixed Affective Events,” Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. 24 (3), 293-314.

Aimee Drolet, Carolyn Yoon, and Norbert Schwarz (2010),  The Aging Consumer: Perspectives from Psychology and Economics, eds. LEA/Psychology Press.

Drolet, Aimee, Hyewook G. Jeong, Loraine Lau-Gesk, and Patti Williams (2010), “Socioemotional Selectivity Theory: Implications for Consumer Behavior,” Chapter 3.

Drolet, Aimee and Daniel He (2010), “Variety-Seeking,” Consumer Behavior, eds. Richard P. Bagozzi and Ayalla Ruvio, Wiley International Encyclopedia of Marketing, John Wiley & Sons.

Kim, Heejung S. and Aimee Drolet (2009), “Express Your Social Self: Cultural Differences in Choice of Brand-Name Versus Generic Products,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 1555-1566, lead article.

Drolet, Aimee, Mary Frances Luce, and Itamar Simonson (2009), “When Does Choice Reveal Preference? Moderators of Heuristic vs. Goal Based Choice,” Journal of Consumer Research, 36 (1), 137-147.

Aaker, Jennifer Lynn, Aimee Drolet, and Dale Griffin (2008), “Recalling Mixed Emotions," Journal of Consumer Research, 35 (3), 268-278.

Drolet, Aimee and Patrick Suppes (2008), “The Good and the Bad, The True and the False,” Reasoning, Rationality, and Probability, eds. Maria Carla Galavotti, Roberto Scazzieri, and Patrick Suppes, Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.

Lau-Gesk, Loraine and Aimee Drolet (2008), “The Publicly Self-Consciousness Consumer: Prepared to Be Embarrassed,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 18 (2), 127-136.

Cole, Catherine, Gilles Laurent, Aimee Drolet, Jane Ebert, Angela Gutchess, Raphaëlle Lambert-Pandraud, Etienne Mullet, Michael Norton, and Ellen Peters (2008), “Decision Making and Brand Choice by Older Consumers,” Marketing Letters, 19 (3-4), 355-365.

Drolet, Aimee, Patti Williams, and Loraine Lau-Gesk (2007), “Age-Related Differences in Responses to Emotional vs. Rational Ads for Hedonic vs. Utilitarian Products,” Marketing Letters, 18 (4), 211-221, lead article.

Bodapati, Anand V. and Aimee Drolet (2005), "A Hybrid Choice Model That Uses Actual and Ordered Attribute Value Information," Journal of Marketing Research, 42 (3), 256-265, lead article, Finalist 2006 AMA Paul E. Green Award.

Williams, Patti and Aimee Drolet (2005), "Age-Related Differences in Responses to Emotional Advertisements," Journal of Consumer Research, 32 (4), 343-354, lead article.

Simonson, Itamar and Aimee Drolet (2004), "Anchoring Effects on Consumers’ Willingness-to-Pay and Willingness-to-Accept," Journal of Consumer Research, 31 (4), 681-690.

Drolet, Aimee and Mary Frances Luce (2004), "The Rationalizing Effects of Cognitive Load on Response to Emotional Tradeoff Difficulty," Journal of Consumer Research, 31 (1), 63-77.

Gibbs, Brian J. and Aimee Drolet (2003), "Consumption Effort: The Mental Cost of Generating Utility and the Role of Consumer Energy Level in Ambitious Consumption," Journal of Consumer Psychology, 13 (3), 268-277.

Kim, Heejung S. and Aimee Drolet (2003), "Choice and Self-Expression: A Cultural Analysis of Variety-Seeking," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85 (2), 373-382.

Drolet, Aimee (2002), "Inherent Rule Variability in Consumer Choice: Changing Rules for Change's Sake," Journal of Consumer Research, 29 (3), 293-305, lead article.

Drolet, Aimee and Jennifer Lynn Aaker (2002), "Off-Target? Changing Cognitive-Based Attitudes," Journal of Consumer Psychology, 12 (1), 59-68.

Wathieu, Luc, Lyle Brenner, Ziv Carmon, Amitav Chattopadhay, Aimee Drolet, John Gourville, A.V. Muthukrishnan, Nathan Novemsky, Rebecca Ratner, Klaus Wertenbroch, George Wu (2002), "Consumer Control and Empowerment: A Primer," Marketing Letters, 13 (August), 297-305.

Simonson, Itamar, Ziv Carmon, Ravi Dhar, Aimee Drolet, and Steven Nowlis (2001), "Consumer Research: In Search of Identity," Annual Review of Psychology, 2001, 52, 249-275.

Drolet, Aimee and Donald G. Morrison (2001), "Rejoinder to Grapentine," Journal of Service Research, 4 (2), 159-160.

Drolet, Aimee and Donald G. Morrison (2001), "Do We Really Need Multiple-Item Measures in Service Research," Journal of Service Research, 3 (3), 196-204, lead article, Finalist 2001 Journal of Service Research Best Paper Award.

Drolet, Aimee, Itamar Simonson, and Amos Tversky (2000), "Indifference Curves That Travel with the Choice Set," Marketing Letters, 11(3), 199-209, lead article.

Drolet, Aimee and Michael W. Morris (2000), "Rapport in Conflict Resolution: Accounting for How Nonverbal Exchange Fosters Coordination on Mutually Beneficial Settlements to Mixed Motive Conflicts," Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 36 (1), 26-50.

Drolet, Aimee, Richard P. Larrick, and Michael W. Morris (1998), "Thinking of Others, Friends and Foes: How Do Effects of Perspective-Taking on Fairness Perceptions and Aspirations in Conflict Resolution Depend on the Relationship between Negotiators?" Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 20 (1), 23-31.

 

Working Papers and Technical Reports

Beymer, Matthew R., Aimee Drolet, and Suzanne B. Shu, “Assessing Market Preferences and Public Health Priorities among Men who have Sex with Men Utilizing Geosocial Networking Apps.”

Drolet, Aimee and Brian J. Gibbs, “The Customer-Empathy Effect: Predisposing Consumers to Be More Satisfied with a Service,” UCLA Center for Marketing Studies Working Paper Series.

Drolet, Aimee, Li Jiang, and Aylar Pour Mohammed, “When Public Self-Consciousness Moderates the Spotlight Effect.”

Drolet, Aimee, Li Jiang, and Carol Scott, “Empathy-Neglect in Embarrassment-Avoidance: Observations from an Outsider,” under fifth review Journal of Marketing Research.

Drolet, Aimee, Mary Frances Luce, Reid Hastie, and Benjamin C. Rossi “The Preference for Moderation Scale.”

Drolet, Aimee and Itamar Simonson, “Ordinal Value- Versus Absolute Value-Based Decision Processes: The Role of Cognitive Resources,” Conditionally accepted Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

Drolet, Aimee, Patrick Suppes, and Anand V. Bodapati, “Habits and Free Associations: Free Your Mind and Mind Your Habits,” UCLA Center for Marketing Studies Working Paper Series, Marketing Science Institute Grant.

Jeong, Hyewook Genevieve and Aimee Drolet, “Chronic Indecisiveness and Variety-Seeking,” invited revision Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.

Jeong, Hyewook Genevieve, Aimee Drolet, and Li Jiang, “The Influence of Attachment Anxiety on Preferences for Ads and Products Related to Romantic Goals.”

Jiang, Li, Aimee Drolet, and Heejung Kim, “The Effects of Aging on the Use of Social Coping Strategies.”

McGillivray, Shannon, Aimee Drolet, and Alan D. Castel, “The Sunk Cost Bias across the Adult Lifespan: Differential Effects of Money, Time, and Emotional Goals.”

Suppes, Patrick and Aimee Drolet, “A Theory of Rational Choice, Normative and Descriptive, Based on Habits,” CSLI, Stanford University, Technical Report.