Faculty & Research

Profile:

Jane Ebert is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Brandeis University's International Business School and is affiliated with the Department of Psychology. She obtained her Ph.D. and M.A. in Social Psychology from Harvard University. She obtained her B.A. in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.

Professor Ebert’s research examines in what ways people are (and can be) motivated by future concerns versus more immediate concerns. In one line of research she examines people’s pursuit of and focus on future rewards and goals. This includes understanding the motivation of rewards or goals that occur in the future (such as future monetary rewards or health goals), examining the impact of attention to future goals in challenging circumstances (such as the impact of maintaining a future focus for CEO successors in financially distressed firms), and exploring novel approaches to motivate consumers (such as identifying optimal times for interventions to change health behaviors). In a second line of research, on hedonic prediction, she examines when and why people mispredict their future feelings, and so may be mistaken about their future desires or goals. Her research has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Management Science, and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Publications:

• Ebert, J.E.J., Southwell, B.G., & Slater, J.. "Campaigns in context: promotion, seasonal variation, and resource factors predict mammography program participation.." Health Systems 1. (2012): 118–128.
• Block, L., Grier, S., Childers, T., Davis, B., Ebert, J.E.J., Kumanyika, S., Laczniak, R., Motley, C., Machin, J., Peracchio, L., Pettigrew, S., Scott, M., van Ginkel Bieshaar. M.. "From Nutrients to Nurturance: A Conceptual Introduction to Food Well-Being." Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 30. Spring (2011): 5-13.