Psychology of Selling and Marketing

A literature review of more than 200 publications maps how AI is being woven into marketing, from programmatic advertising to churn prediction, and where adoption still stalls.

New research across two retail field studies finds that moderate time pressure boosts sales performance while excessive pressure drags it down, with managerial feedback, mentoring, and meetings softening the damage.

New research identifies six distinct qualities women use to judge gender-equitable advertising, and shows how those perceptions translate into loyalty and advocacy.

A meta-analysis of 60 experiments finds that adding irrelevant neuroscience to explanations reliably boosts how satisfying they feel, but rarely changes what people actually believe.

A meta-analysis of 132 experiments finds that adding AI to marketing workflows reliably improves human performance, but human-AI teams rarely outperform capable AI systems working alone.

New research finds that products displayed against high-contrast backgrounds appear larger to shoppers than the same products shown against similar-hued backgrounds, an effect driven by sharper edges and easier visual processing.

New research finds that brand names with repeated sounds, like "BonBon" or "Yum Yum," lead consumers to expect sweeter flavors, an effect linked to perceptions of baby-like cuteness.

A review of 32 studies reveals how psychology-based persuasion models and adaptive communication skills are linked to better outcomes in business-to-business sales.

New research finds that AI shopping assistants can distort consumers' sense of time, making them less likely to choose eco-friendly options that involve waiting.

Why do sales agents quit? Two studies reveal that internal motivation and schedule control outweigh financial rewards for keeping talent.