W. P. Carey marketing lab renamed for professor, best-selling author

Robert B. Cialdini Behavioral Research Lab looks to expand into the field.

Robert Cialdini’s work fusing social psychology and marketing led to a new way of thinking about consumer behavior and launched a best-selling book. Now, one of the most important resources in the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University is being named for this world-class scholar.

The Robert B. Cialdini Behavioral Research Lab will continue its mission and expand its reach, thanks to a gift from Cialdini and his wife, businesswoman Bobette Gorden, and several other donors.

In an article Feb. 19, 2019, on ASU Now:

The lab conducts more than 200 separate behavioral experiments each year and is a vital resource for our faculty, students, and community. One of the issues we have with all types of research done with a student population is that you just can’t ask all the questions you might be interested in asking, such as decisions about health care or financial services. We’re interested in creating a mobile lab — pulling together resources that our researchers can take out into the field, wherever that might be.

– Amy Ostrom, chair of the marketing department, who says the investment will take the lab to the next level, expanding its work into the community and widening the study participant base well beyond undergraduates.

Top photo: Friends, students, and colleagues enter the Robert B. Cialdini Behavioral Research Lab in the W. P. Carey School of Business, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019. The lab, named after the emeritus professor, will enable students to develop and test theories in consumer behavior in realistic experimental situations. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now