Amit Kumar

Oh, hello there. I'm Amit. I am currently an Assistant Professor of Marketing and Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. My primary appointment is at the McCombs School of Business. I’m also affiliated with UT’s Psychology Department. I was previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Center for Decision Research at The University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. During my time there, I mainly focused on some fun experiments with Nick Epley. I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Psychology at Cornell University, where I worked with Tom Gilovich on topics related to consumer behavior, well-being, and judgment and decision-making. Before that, I received my A. B. in Psychology and Economics from Harvard University, working primarily with Dan Gilbert.

I am particularly interested in studying happiness. Much of my work has explored its relationship with money, examining the distinction between experiential and material purchases (that is, money spent on doing--e.g., on vacations and concerts--versus money spent on having--e.g., on clothing and gadgets). I have investigated how experiential consumption promotes enhanced anticipatory pleasure, provides hedonic benefits through utility derived from storytelling, and also has downstream consequences in terms of fostering social connectedness, gratitude, and prosocial behavior. These days I'm thinking about the broader connection between sociality and well-being. More specifically, I've been curious about whether people should act prosocially more often than they typically do.

I enjoy justifying the amount of money I spend on meals, live music, travel, and theater through rigorous scientific research. Note that these findings have also been highlighted by the National Endowment for the Arts.

I do not especially enjoy updating this website.

Like the late, great Prince*, I am sometimes on the radio. I've been told that "sometimes" implies more than once.** Even in Ireland! Even in New Zealand! (Did Prince ever do a podcast? And if so, did he do one again after that? Another one!). Here's the U.S. Surgeon General discussing some of my research on the Department of Health and Human Services' podcast. Despite having a face made for radio, I’ve even been allowed on TV. (Or is my face so nice that they wanted to see it twice? Thrice, even? Is there a word for four times?). Here’s me on the PBS NewsHour.

I guess I also occasionally blog. (People tell me that “occasionally” suggests “more than once” as well). You can also find pieces I wrote for Scientific American here, here, here, here, and here. Here’s one in The Washington Post. And here’s one for The Conversation. At times my writing for a general audience can be longer, like when it’s for the Harvard Business Review. But HBR pieces can be shorter, too.

For media coverage of some of my work, see BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discover Magazine, The Hill, The Huffington Post, MarketWatch, Newsy, Oprah Daily, Pacific Standard, PBS, Popular Science, Shondaland, CNN (here and here), Fortune Magazine (here and here), The Houston Chronicle (here and here), The International Business Times (here and here), National Geographic (here and here), Quartz (here and here), Time Magazine (here and here), The Atlantic (here, here, and here), Axios (here, here, and here) the Cornell Chronicle (here, here, and here), The Daily Texan (here, here, and here), New York Magazine (here, here, and here), Chicago Booth Review (here, here, here, and here), Fast Company (here, here, here, and here), Forbes (here, here, here, and here), Health Central (here, here, here, and here), U.S. News & World Report (here, here, here, and here), Vox (here, here, here, and here), The Wall Street Journal (here, here, here, and here). The Washington Post (here, here, here, and here), Business Insider (here, here, here, here, and here), Inc (here, here, here, here, and here), Psychology Today (here, here, here, here, and here), BPS Research Digest (here, here, here, here, here and here), The New York Times (here, here, here, here, here, and here), NPR (here, here, here, here, here, and here), ScienceDaily (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), or Texas McCombs Big Ideas (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here).

For an overview of some of my work, read this and/or this. If you'd rather take a few minutes instead of--or in addition to--a couple of hours, watch this video (and/or this one and/or this one and/or this one and/or this one and/or this one and/or this one). This one is a nice summary of some practical takeaways from much of my research.

For a blurry picture of me learning how to ride a bicycle at the age of 28, click here.

*If you can think of some of the many other ways in which I am like Prince, please feel free to shoot me an email.

**Apparently, the first link is a Fox affiliate and the second is an NPR affiliate. I'm really bridging the political divide. [Okay, maybe I do the Public Radio thing a little more often. Alright, much more often. Much, much more often? Much, much, much more often? (Even in Canada)]. If you’re looking to hear the episode of the show Hidden Brain that I’m featured on, you can listen here.