About

Tanya Chartrand is the Roy J. Bostock Professor of Marketing and a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. Her research focuses on the nonconscious processes that influence emotion, cognition, and behavior. She has published extensively in psychology and consumer behavior journals, including American Psychologist, Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of Consumer Research, and the Journal of Consumer Psychology. Dr. Chartrand has held leadership roles such as co-chair of the 2011 North American Association for Consumer Research Conference and co-editor of a special issue of the Journal of Consumer Psychology on Nonconscious Processes. She has also served on the Executive Committee of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, where she chaired the dissertation award, career trajectory award, and membership committees. She received her PhD in social psychology from New York University and was a faculty member at Ohio State University before joining Duke University. At Duke, she teaches Market Research to MBA students and Behavioral Research Methods to doctoral students.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Political Science
• Social Science
• Business
• Law
• Gender studies
• Marketing
• Advertising

Selected publications

• The Benefits—and Costs—of Behavioral Mimicry: Applications in Marketing, Sales, and Therapy

  2024-11-11

  book-chapterOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Previous research on the so-called Chameleon effect and other studies on more general mimicry indicate that mimicking another person’s gestures, mannerisms, and speech (whether intentionally or not) leads to several profound social consequences without awareness that mimicry took place (Chartrand and Bargh, J Personality Soc Psychol 76:893–910, 1999). This chapter reviews research on mimicry as a nonconsciously employed mechanism by focusing on the consequences of mimicry. Thereby, we will review positive as well as negative consequences that take place within and beyond the mimicry dyad.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Money can buy me love: Gifts are a more effective form of acute social support than conversations

  Journal of Consumer Psychology · 2024-08-16 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract If you are having a hard day, what can someone else do to help you feel better? Maybe they could verbally comfort you or maybe they could give you a small gift. In seven studies, including an in‐person real gifting study, we find that receiving a small material gift, such as a candy bar or flowers, improves receivers' affect more than a supportive conversation with a close other does. We investigate the mechanism for this effect and find that support receivers perceive a gift to be a larger sacrifice than a conversation. This occurs because gifts seem more receiver‐focused (i.e., actions done solely to benefit the receiver) than do conversations. This difference in perceived sacrifice makes gifts (vs. conversations) more effective at promoting emotional recovery.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• When and Why Antiegalitarianism Affects Resistance to Supporting Black-Owned Businesses

  Psychological Science · 2024-06-18 · 1 citations

  article

  Understanding how initiatives to support Black-owned businesses are received, and why, has important social and economic implications. To address this, we designed three experiments to investigate the role of antiegalitarian versus egalitarian ideologies among White American adults. In Study 1 ( N = 199), antiegalitarianism (vs. egalitarianism) predicted viewing initiatives supporting a Black-owned business as less fair, but only when the business was competing with other (presumably White-owned) businesses. In Study 2 ( N = 801), antiegalitarianism predicted applying survival-of-the-fittest market beliefs, particularly to Black-owned businesses. Antiegalitarianism also predicted viewing initiatives supporting Black-owned businesses as less fair than initiatives that targeted other (presumably White-owned) businesses, especially for tangible (vs. symbolic) support that directly impacts the success of a business. In Study 3 ( N = 590), antiegalitarianism predicted rejecting a program investing in Black-owned businesses. These insights demonstrate how antiegalitarian ideology can have the effect of maintaining race-based inequality, hindering programs designed to reduce that inequality.

  PublisherDOI

• Being there without being there: Gifts compensate for lack of in‐person support

  Psychology and Marketing · 2022 · 14 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Psychology
  • Social psychology
  • Law

  Abstract Providing social support is a critical part of being in a relationship with someone, but people often struggle to support loved ones in person. In this paper, we show how givers can use gifts to compensate for not providing in‐person social support. Study 1 shows that when it is prohibitively difficult for givers to provide in‐person support, they give more expensive gifts. Study 2 replicates this effect for likelihood to give a gift and shows it is not due to social desirability. Studies 3, 4a, and 4b find that guilt over not having provided adequate support drives people to give gifts, and that giving gifts partially relieves givers' feelings of guilt. Studies 5 and 6 examine moderation. In Study 5, people only compensate for a lack of in‐person support with a gift when they have a strong obligation to support the recipient because they are close to them. Study 6 shows that money does not substitute for in‐person support. We show the role of gifts in enhancing givers' wellbeing and provide new customer insights to managers on reasons people purchase gifts.

  PublisherDOI

• Experiences of mimicry in eating disorders

  Journal of Eating Disorders · 2022-07-15 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: People unknowingly mimic the behaviors of others, a process that results in feelings of affiliation. However, some individuals with eating disorders describe feeling "triggered" when mimicked. This study explores the effects of implicit non-verbal mimicry on individuals with a history of an eating disorder (ED-His) compared to healthy controls (HCs). METHOD: = 21 years) participated in a laboratory task with a confederate trained to either discreetly mimic (Mimicry condition) or not mimic (No-Mimicry condition) the mannerisms of the participant. Participants rated the likability of the confederate and the smoothness of the interaction. RESULTS: Participants in the No-Mimicry condition rated the confederate as significantly more likable than in the Mimicry condition, and ED-His rated the confederate as more likable than HCs. ED-His in the Mimicry condition rated the interaction as less smooth than HCs, whereas this pattern was not found in the No-Mimicry condition. Among ED-His, longer disorder duration (≥ 3.87 years) was associated with less liking of a confederate who mimicked and more liking of a confederate who did not mimic. CONCLUSIONS: We discuss the implications of these findings for interpersonal therapeutic processes and group treatment settings for eating disorders. Our study on subtle, nonverbal mimicry revealed differences in social behavior for women with a history of an eating disorder compared to healthy women. For participants with an eating disorder history, a longer duration of illness was associated with a worse pattern of affiliation, reflected in lower liking of a mimicker. Further research on how diverging processes of affiliation may function to perpetuate the chronicity of eating disorders and implications for treatment is needed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Celebrate Good Times: How Celebrations Increase Perceived Social Support

  Journal of Public Policy & Marketing · 2022 · 6 citations

  • Sociology
  • Social psychology
  • Psychology

  Despite the ubiquity of celebrations in everyday life, little is known about how celebrations may contribute to consumer well-being. In the current work, the authors propose that celebrations promote perceived social support, which prior work has conceptualized as the belief that others will be there for you for future negative life events. The authors further theorize that celebrations require three key characteristics that, in combination, are necessary for increasing perceived social support. Specifically, celebrations must (1) mark an individual's separate positive event and (2) involve consumption (3) with others (i.e., social). They test this theory across eight studies and demonstrate a process mechanism for this effect: these characteristics lead to increases in enacted support and perceived responsiveness, which in turn lead to increases in more general perceived social support. They then extend these findings by investigating virtually held celebrations, the individual's role at the celebration, and a downstream prosocial outcome. By doing so, this work highlights the broader benefits of celebrations beyond the focal individual and the immediate experience. Finally, specific policy implications and suggestions for enhancing consumer well-being are provided.

  PublisherDOI

• The gift of psychological closeness: How feasible versus desirable gifts reduce psychological distance to the giver

  OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) · 2021-10-04

  other
  Publisher

• Better to Decide Together: Shared Consumer Decision Making, Perceived Power, and Relationship Satisfaction

  Journal of Consumer Psychology · 2021 · 30 citations

  • Psychology
  • Social psychology
  • Marketing

  Shared consumer decisions, particularly those made with a relationship partner, can be very different from decisions that are made alone. Across multiple studies, we investigate how shared consumer decision making affects perceptions of power and relationship satisfaction. We integrate two streams of research to create a novel theory about consumer decision making and perceived power. Specifically, we suggest that shared consumer decision making combines two necessary components of power—an individual's influence over and a partner's engagement in the decision—and that these combined components drive power perceptions. In other words, individuals who relinquish some control and make a decision with their partner, ironically, perceive having greater power than if they had made the decision alone. We further find that shared decision making and greater perceived power lead to greater satisfaction with the relationship in which the decisions are made. By focusing on consumer decision making within relationships, the current research contributes to the literatures on decision making, social influences in consumer behavior, close relationships, consumer well‐being, and power.

  PublisherDOI

• Faculty Opinions recommendation of Contagious itching is heightened in children with autism spectrum disorders.

  Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature · 2021-05-25

  dataset1st authorCorresponding

  The authors tested susceptibility to contagious itching, laughter, and yawning in 55 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ages 8-14, and 106 typically developing (TD) children, ages 5-14. Children with ASD were less likely to yawn or laugh contagiously compared with TD peers, but showed increased susceptibility to contagious itching, under naturalistic conditions. Contagious yawning and laughter were positively correlated with emotional empathy in the TD group. In contrast, contagious itching showed no relationship to empathy, and was positively correlated with autism symptom severity in the ASD group. The authors explore the implications of these findings in terms of psychological theories about ASD.© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. PMID: 33617103

  PublisherDOI

• The Burden of Gifts: How Givers Mispredict Negative Reactions of Receivers

  ACR North American Advances · 2020-01-01

  articleSenior author
  Publisher

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R03MH065250

  NIH · $151k · 2005

Frequent coauthors

• Gavan J. Fitzsimons

  Duke University

  42 shared

• Amy N. Dalton

  University of Hong Kong

  18 shared

• N. Pontus Leander

  Wayne State University

  17 shared

• James R. Bettman

  Duke University

  15 shared

• John A. Bargh

  14 shared

• Clara Michelle Cheng

  13 shared

• Rick van Baaren

  Radboud University Nijmegen

  11 shared

• Rosellina Ferraro

  11 shared

Awards & honors

• co-chair of the 2011 North American Association for Consumer…
• special issue of Journal of Consumer Psychology on Nonconsci…