Simona Botti

Simona Botti received her PhD in Marketing at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in 2004 and is Assistant Professor of Marketing and Clifford H. Whitcomb Faculty Fellow at Cornell University The Johnson School. Botti's research investigates circumstances in which people prefer making their own choices—rather than having these choices dictated by others—even though they are not better off for doing so. Results of several experiments show that, contrary to people's belief, when the choices are difficult choosing for oneself does not lead to greater satisfaction than having a choice imposed by others.

Furthermore, when the choices are aversive personal-choosing makes people even less satisfied than other-choosing. These results are counterintuitive both for classic psychology and economics, which would predict people to be always more satisfied when they have the opportunity to match personal preferences with available choice alternatives. The explanation she put forward is that, unbeknownst to decision makers, the act of choosing in itself generates an affective response that, when carried over to the evaluation of the choice outcome, determines the reversal in satisfaction observed in the studies.