Ginger L. Pennington

Ginger L. Pennington received her PhD in social psychology from Northwestern University. While at Chicago GSB she taught MBA courses on marketing strategy and marketing research methods at the GSB, and also courses on consumer behavior and self-processes at Northwestern. Her research has been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and Group Processes and Intergroup Relations.

Professor Pennington researches consumer behavior from a psychological perspective, drawing upon social psychological principles related to human motivation and the self-concept. Using experimental methods, she examines the manner in which consumers' evaluations of products and advertisements are affected by such factors as the temporal proximity of the purchase, the abstract versus concrete nature of thoughts, and the presence of contextual cues related to achievement (e.g., “getting a good deal”) versus security (e.g., “not paying too much”). In another stream of research, she examines the precursors and consequences of counterfactual thought (i.e., “if only…” types of thoughts) and feelings of regret in the realm of consumer behavior. She has presented her research at national meetings in the fields of both marketing and psychology, and at academic research universities throughout the country.