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Thank you for visiting my website! My name is Donald R. Gaffney (Ryan) and I'm currently an Instructor and Researcher at the Owen Graduate School of Management. My area of research lies within the realms of uncertainty and consumer inference. My research primarily explores the nuanced ways in which attributions of uncertainty, and its variants, affect behavior and consumption patterns. My dissertation and ongoing studies are dedicated to uncovering insights into consumer behavior under different types of uncertainty. My work is rooted in the field of judgment and decision-making, and often intersects with domains such as artificial intelligence, branding, misinformation, bias, and public policy.
Vanderbilt University - Owen Graduate School of Management
Instructor, 2023 - present
Senior Researcher, 2022 - present
Postdoctoral Scholar, 2021 - 2022

Employment

Education

University of Cincinnati - Carl H. Lindner College of Business
Ph.D., 2017-2021, Marketing | Concentration: Information Processing
M.Sc., 2016-2017, Marketing | Concentration: Consumer Psychology
B.B.A., 2013-2016, Marketing | International Business

Posavac, Steven S., Donald R. Gaffney, and Frank R. Kardes (in press), “On the Robustness of the Brand Positivity Effect: Is Impulsivity a Moderator of Overly Favorable Judgments and Choices of Focal Options,” Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 37(2), e2371. 

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Wu, Ruomeng, Donald R. Gaffney, Frank R. Kardes, Shaobo (Kevin) Li, and Meng Liu (2023), "As Good as New: Embarrassment and Consumers’ Preference for Used versus New Products," Journal of International Consumer Marketing.

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Hernandez, José Mauro C., Murilo Carrazedo, Donald R. Gaffney, and Frank R. Kardes (2023), “The Benefits of Deciding Now and Not Later: The Influence of the Timing Between Acquiring Knowledge and Deciding on Decision Confidence, Omission Neglect Bias, and Choice Deferral,” Judgment and Decision Making, 18(3).

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Posavac, Steven S., Heidi D. Posavac, Donald R. Gaffney, and Frank R. Kardes, (2022), "Toward A Clinical Consumer Psychology," Frontiers in Psychology, 13, p.904843.

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Posavac, Steven S., Frank R. Kardes, Heidi D. Posavac & Donald R. Gaffney, (2022), “The Utility of Clinical Psychology Concepts for Judgment and Decision Making Research: The Case of Histrionic Features,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 48(1), 65-77.

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Kellaris, James J., Karen A. Machleit & Donald R. Gaffney (2020), “Sign Evaluation and Compliance Under Mortality Salience: Lessons from a Pandemic,” Interdisciplinary Journal of Signage and Wayfinding, 4 (2), 51-66. 

Publications

Chapters

Kardes, Frank R., Steven S. Posavac, and Donald R. Gaffney (forthcoming), “Consumer Inference and the Illusion of Knowledge,” in Handbook of Social Psychology and Consumer Behaviour, eds. Eric R. Spangenberg and Katie (Quinn) Spangenberg, London, U.K.:  Elgar.

Kardes, Frank R., Steven S. Posavac, and Donald R. Gaffney (2022), “Omission Neglect and Consumer Judgment and Inference Based on Limited Evidence,” in APA Handbook of Consumer Psychology, eds. Lynn Kahle, Tina M. Lowrey, and Joel Huber, Washington, D.C.:  APA.
Gaffney, Donald R., Joshua J. Clarkson & Frank R. Kardes (under review). A Tale of Two Theories: The Role of Need for Closure in Defining Conservatism and Political Extremism. Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Gaffney, Donald R., Bryan M. Buechner, Emma Sittenauer, Y. David Wu, Catherine Touchton, Susan Powell Mantel Steven S. Posavac & Frank R. Kardes (preparing for submission). A Gricean Theory of Algorithm (AI) Aversion. Targeting the Journal of Consumer Research.

*Gaffney, Donald R., Bryan M. Buechner & Noah VanBergen (preparing for submission). The Will of the People: The Role of Subjective Uncertainty Variant on Inference and Behavior. Targeting the Journal of Consumer Research.

*Gaffney, Donald R., Frank R. Kardes & Steven S. Posavac (collecting data). Revisiting Base-rate Neglect: An Epistemic Inference Hypothesis. Targeting the Journal of Consumer Research.

*Dissertation
full list available upon request.

In the Works

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Presentations

Gaffney, Donald R., Joshua J. Clarkson, and Frank R. Kardes (2023), "Is Uncertainty Avoidance a Defining Characteristic of Conservatism or Extremism?," presented at the Association for Consumer Research, Seattle, WA.

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*Gaffney, Donald R., Bryan M. Buechner, and Noah VanBergen (2022), "Inference in Times and Types of Uncertainty: The Case of COVID-19 and Free Will," presented at the Association for Consumer Research, Denver, CO.

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*Gaffney, Donald R., Bryan M. Buechner, and Noah VanBergen (2021), "Subjective Uncertainty and the Belief-Behavior Link for COVID-19 Countermeasure Compliance," presented at the 2021 Association for Psychological Science Virtual Convention, Virtual. 
 

Posavac, Steven S., Frank R. Kardes, Heidi D. Posavac, and Donald R. Gaffney (2021), "Decision Motives and Judgment Tendencies of the Histrionic Personality," presented at the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, Virtual.
 

Kardes, Frank R. and Donald R. Gaffney (2020), “Omission Neglect: Out of Sight, Out of Mind,” paper presented at TEDxUCincinnati, Cincinnati, OH.

 

*Gaffney, Donald R., Frank R. Kardes, and Robert S. Wyer Jr. (2019), "Does Feeling Ignorant Give Us More Control?" paper presented at the Annual Association for Consumer Research Conference, Atlanta, GA.
 

Gaffney, Donald R., Emma Neybert, Frank R. Kardes, and Robert S. Wyer (2019), “Seeing the Unseen:  The Role of Distrust in Considering Missing Information,” presented at the Annual Association for Consumer Research Conference, Atlanta, GA.

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*Dissertation

full list available upon request.

Vanderbilt University: Faculty Research Forum (2021, 2022, 2023).

University of Louisville: Consumer Behavior Research Forum (2019).

University of Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati Bicentennial Community Day (2018).

Invited

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