About

Ravi Dhar is the George Rogers Clark Professor of Marketing and Psychology at Yale University. He earned his Ph.D. in 1992 from the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Dhar is an expert in consumer behavior and branding, marketing management, and marketing strategy. His research involves using psychological and economic principles to investigate fundamental aspects of how preferences are formed and constructed, with the goal of understanding and predicting consumer behavior in the marketplace. He is also interested in the processes of self-regulation, particularly in the context of the simultaneous pursuit of multiple goals. His ongoing research explores how individuals regulate multiple goals within multiple goal systems, addressing real-life situations where people hold several different, sometimes conflicting, goals such as enjoying culinary delights while maintaining a slim figure or balancing career objectives with family and social time.

Research topics

• Biology
• Psychology
• Business
• Molecular biology
• Genetics

Selected publications

• Systems metabolic engineering approach for enhanced production of surfactin

  New Biotechnology · 2025-03-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• The (Better) Road Not Taken: Setting a Goal Reduces Switching to More Effective Alternatives

  Journal of Consumer Research · 2025-11-23 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract We identify a novel way in which setting goals can backfire. In 13 studies and 4 supplemental studies, using both incentive-compatible and hypothetical designs across a range of domains, we demonstrate that setting an explicit goal and making progress toward it decreases the likelihood of switching to alternative means of pursuit. This occurs because means seem more effective relative to alternatives if they have been used to progress toward a reference point. Consistent with this mechanism, we show that the perceived effectiveness of the means used to pursue a goal, relative to an alternative, partially mediates the effect of setting a goal on the decision to switch means. Furthermore, the effect occurs only after people make initial progress toward a specified reference point. Setting a goal does not decrease switching if people are reminded to consider the advantages of both the initial and alternative means. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• UNSEEN EMISSIONS: CONSUMERS SYSTEMATICALLY UNDERESTIMATE THE CARBON DIFFERENCES AMONG FOODS

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Serving with a Smile on Airbnb: Analyzing the Economic Returns and Behavioral Underpinnings of the Host’s Smile

  Journal of Consumer Research · 2024-08-09 · 17 citations

  articleCorresponding

  Abstract Non-informational cues, such as facial expressions, can significantly influence judgments and interpersonal impressions. While past research has explored how smiling affects business outcomes in offline or in-store contexts, relatively less is known about how smiling influences consumer choice in e-commerce settings when there is no face-to-face interaction. In this article, we use a longitudinal Airbnb dataset and a facial attribute classifier to quantify the effect of a smile in the host’s profile photo on property demand and identify factors that influence when a host’s smile is likely to have the biggest effect. A smile in the host’s profile photo increases property demand by 3.5% on average. This effect is moderated by a variety of host and property characteristics that provide evidence for the role of uncertainty underlying why smiling increases demand. Specifically, when there is greater uncertainty regarding either the quality of the accommodations or the interaction with the host, a host’s smile will have a greater effect on demand. Online experiments confirm this pattern, offering further support for uncertainty perceptions driving the effect of smiling on increased Airbnb demand, and show that the effect of smiling on demand generalizes beyond Airbnb.

  PublisherDOI

• Driving Sustainable Food Choices: How to Craft an Effective Sustainability Labeling System

  Journal of the Association for Consumer Research · 2023-03-20 · 9 citations

  article

  An important step in averting climate change is shifting consumers’ diets to contain less meat. While preliminary work suggests sustainability labels can shift consumers’ preferences, there is no clear guidance on what makes an effective labeling system. Across five experiments , we find that multi-icon systems (traffic light) are the most effective in reducing the carbon impact of consumers’ choices, but also generated the most negative attitudes toward the restaurant. We further find that single-icon systems (e.g., labeling only sustainable options) are effective at shifting consumer choices, particularly when combined with numeric information (e.g., kg of CO2), and generally produce no negative attitudes relative to control. These results replicate using an incentive-compatible design and an externally valid population (tech employees). Overall, we provide a systematic empirical investigation of different approaches to sustainability labeling. We conclude by discussing limitations, future directions, and advice for implementing sustainability labels.

  PublisherDOI

• Forgot Your Bottle or Bag Again? How Well-Placed Reminder Cues Can Help Consumers Build Sustainable Habits

  Journal of the Association for Consumer Research · 2023-03-20 · 9 citations

  article

  Despite widespread knowledge and acceptance of the importance of climate-friendly behavior, consumers often fail to take the necessary actions to engage in more sustainable consumption. We propose a framework for structuring reminder messages to drive desired climate-friendly actions in a way that helps consumers build better long-term habits. Specifically, we formally test where to place the reminder in the consumption decision process (refilling of reusable water bottles) and find that simple action-oriented reminders, if placed early in the decision process, where they can benefit from contextual triggers, can motivate habits that endure even after the reminder period has ended. Furthermore, we find that specific sustainability-focused reminders (bringing a reusable bottle or bag) can motivate climate-friendly behaviors without negatively affecting overall consumption of the underlying good.

  PublisherDOI

• Nielsen

  Yale School of Management eBooks · 2022-01-01

  book
  PublisherDOI

• Electronic Alerts to Improve Heart Failure Therapy in Outpatient Practice

  Journal of the American College of Cardiology · 2022-04-03 · 186 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: The use of guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) is underprescribed in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). OBJECTIVES: This study sought to examine whether targeted and tailored electronic health record (EHR) alerts recommending GDMT in eligible patients with HFrEF improves GDMT use. METHODS: PROMPT-HF (PRagmatic trial Of Messaging to Providers about Treatment of Heart Failure) was a pragmatic, EHR-based, cluster-randomized comparative effectiveness trial. A total of 100 providers caring for patients with HFrEF were randomized to either an alert or usual care. The alert notified providers of individualized GDMT recommendations along with patient characteristics. The primary outcome was an increase in the number of GDMT classes prescribed at 30 days postrandomization. Providers were surveyed on knowledge of guidelines and user experience. RESULTS: The study enrolled 1,310 ambulatory patients with HFrEF from April to October 2021. Median age was 72 years; 31% were female; 18% were Black; and median left ventricular ejection fraction was 32%. At baseline, 84% of participants were receiving β-blockers, 71% received a renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitor, 29% received a mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, and 11% received a sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor. The primary outcome occurred in 176 of 685 (26%) participants in the alert arm vs 117 of 625 (19%) in the usual care arm, thus increasing GDMT class prescription by >40% after alert exposure (adjusted relative risk: 1.41; 95% CI: 1.03-1.93; P = 0.03). The number of patients needed to alert to result in an increase in addition of GDMT classes was 14. A total of 79% of alerted providers agreed that the alert was effective at enabling improved prescription of medical therapy for HF. CONCLUSIONS: A real-time, targeted, and tailored EHR-based alerting system for outpatients with HFrEF led to significantly higher rates of GDMT at 30 days when compared with usual care. This low-cost intervention can be rapidly integrated into clinical care and accelerate adoption of high-value therapies in heart failure. (PRagmatic trial Of Messaging to Providers about Treatment of Heart Failure [PROMPT-HF; NCT04514458]).

  PublisherDOI

• The impact of touchscreen devices on consumers’ choice confidence and purchase likelihood

  Marketing Letters · 2022-03-16 · 18 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Alerting Clinicians to 1-Year Mortality Risk in Patients Hospitalized With Heart Failure

  JAMA Cardiology · 2022-08-10 · 57 citations

  articleOpen access

  Importance: Heart failure is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The use of risk scores has the potential to improve targeted use of interventions by clinicians that improve patient outcomes, but this hypothesis has not been tested in a randomized trial. Objective: To evaluate whether prognostic information in heart failure translates into improved decisions about initiation and intensity of treatment, more appropriate end-of-life care, and a subsequent reduction in rates of hospitalization or death. Design, Setting, and Participants: This was a pragmatic, multicenter, electronic health record-based, randomized clinical trial across the Yale New Haven Health System, comprising small community hospitals and large tertiary care centers. Patients hospitalized for heart failure who had N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels of greater than 500 pg/mL and received intravenous diuretics within 24 hours of admission were automatically randomly assigned to the alert (intervention) or usual-care groups. Interventions: The alert group had their risk of 1-year mortality calculated using an algorithm that was derived and validated using similar historic patients in the electronic health record. This estimate, including a categorical risk assessment, was presented to clinicians while they were interacting with a patient's electronic health record. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was a composite of 30-day hospital readmissions and all-cause mortality at 1 year. Results: Between November 27, 2019, through March 7, 2021, 3124 patients were randomly assigned to the alert (1590 [50.9%]) or usual-care (1534 [49.1%]) group. The alert group had a median (IQR) age of 76.5 (65-86) years, and 796 were female patients (50.1%). Patients from the following race and ethnicity groups were included: 13 Asian (0.8%), 324 Black (20.4%), 136 Hispanic (8.6%), 1448 non-Hispanic (91.1%), 1126 White (70.8%), 6 other ethnicity (0.4%), and 127 other race (8.0%). The usual-care group had a median (IQR) age of 77 (65-86) years, and 788 were female patients (51.4%). Patients from the following race and ethnicity groups were included: 11 Asian (1.4%), 298 Black (19.4%), 162 Hispanic (10.6%), 1359 non-Hispanic (88.6%), 1077 White (70.2%), 13 other ethnicity (0.9%), and 137 other race (8.9%). Median (IQR) NT-proBNP levels were 3826 (1692-8241) pg/mL in the alert group and 3867 (1663-8917) pg/mL in the usual-care group. A total of 284 patients (17.9%) and 270 patients (17.6%) were admitted to the intensive care unit in the alert and usual-care groups, respectively. A total of 367 patients (23.1%) and 359 patients (23.4%) had a left ventricular ejection fraction of 40% or less in the alert and usual-care groups, respectively. The model achieved an area under the curve of 0.74 in the trial population. The primary outcome occurred in 619 patients (38.9%) in the alert group and 603 patients (39.3%) in the usual-care group (P = .89). There were no significant differences between study groups in the prescription of heart failure medications at discharge, the placement of an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or referral to palliative care. Conclusions and Relevance: Provision of 1-year mortality estimates during heart failure hospitalization did not affect hospitalization or mortality, nor did it affect clinical decision-making. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT03845660.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant Z01BC005643

  NIH · $1.3M

• NIH Grant ZIABC005643

  NIH · $1.8M

Frequent coauthors

• Stephen M. Nowlis

  35 shared

• Itamar Simonson

  Universitat Ramon Llull

  34 shared

• Kelly Goldsmith

  30 shared

• George Khoury

  Lebanese German University

  29 shared

• Ziv Carmon

  INSEAD

  27 shared

• Aimée Drolet

  Anderson University - South Carolina

  25 shared

• Nathan Novemsky

  Yale University

  23 shared

• Diego Breviario

  Istituto di Biologia e Biotecnologia Agraria

  21 shared