August 14-17, 2008
Ithaca, NY
Sage Hall
Ithaca, NY
Sage Hall
BREAKING THE CODE
| From Adam Smith to Marx to Veblen to Bourdieu and beyond, consumption has been seen as a system of symbolic indicators, carriers, and causes of meaning. We consume to create and express identities—personal, social, and cultural—to both ourselves and to others. We consume to belong and to differentiate, to unite and to divide, to blend in and to stick out. This conference will bring together behavioral scientists from economics, psychology, sociology, marketing, and other fields, who are doing research to unravel the meaning of consumption. |
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| Tentative schedule: | ||
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| Stella's | 6:30-8:00 | Welcome Reception |
| Ramin Parlor (Sage Hall) | 8:00 | Breakfast |
| 9:00-10:30 | Opening Remarks | |
| Judith Donath: Far from frivolous: Fashion as a risky signal of social information access | ||
| Sage 141 | 11:00-12:30 | Wilfred Amaldoss: Strategic implications of social influences on consumption |
| Dan Ariely: Expectations and (maybe) fashion | ||
| Banfi's (Statler) | 12:45 | Lunch |
| Sage 141 | 2:30-4:00 | Russell Belk: Yours, mine, and ours: Owning, extended self, and sharing |
| Jonah Berger: Divergence in cultural practices: Identity, signaling, and the success of culture | ||
| Ramin Parlor | 4:30-6:00 | Panel Discussion |
| Off-campus | 6:00 | Dinner |
| Ramin Parlor (Sage Hall) | 8:00 | Breakfast |
| 9:00-10:30 | Robert Frank: Thorstein Veblen: Still misunderstood, but more important than ever | |
| Thomas Gilovich: The relative relativity of material and experiential purchases | ||
| Ramin Parlor | 11:00-12:30 | Ori Heffetz: Symbolic consumption in economics: Applications and implications |
| Benjamin Ho: Signaling identity in social networks: A model of symbolic consumption | ||
| Banfi's (Statler) | 12:45 | Lunch |
| Ramin Parlor | 2:30-4:00 | Sam Gosling: A room with a cue: Self-expression in physical spaces |
| Leaf Van Boven: Stigmatizing materialism: On stereotypes and impressions of materialistic versus experiential consumers | ||
| Off-campus | 5:00 | Discussion + Dinner |
| Sage 141 | 8:00-9:00 | Breakfast |
| Sage 141 | 9:00-10:30 | Geoffrey Miller: Conspicuous consumption as trait-display: How human instincts for showing off intelligence, personality traits, and moral virtues, influence consumer behavior |
| Ulrich Witt: Where attention goes: Consumption and the role of unintentional agenda effects | ||
| Sage 141 | 11:00-12:30 | Concluding Session |
| Off-campus | 12:30-5:30 | The Great Ithaca Wine Tour |
| The objectives of the conference are—like those of other such conferences—to further a cross-disciplinary dialog between people who, although working on the same subject, approach it from different perspectives; to expose ourselves to a broader body of work than the literatures each of us routinely reads and contributes to; and to get to know better what each other is currently working on. The tentative plan is for each of the participants to present for 30 minutes followed by another 15 minutes of discussion and Q&A. The format of presentations is relatively open: while some might choose to present a paper and get comments, others might choose to overview a research agenda, introducing participants to some of the ideas they have been pursuing. Finally, as Ithaca is beautiful in the summer, the time we plan to spend on Cayuga Lake after the sessions will surely inspire some for new projects and new collaborations. For further details contact Ori Heffetz, Benjamin Ho, or Leaf Van Boven. |
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