Thank you for visiting my website! I am Donald R. Gaffney, but I often go by Ryan. As a Senior Researcher at the Owen Graduate School of Management, my work often focuses on the role of uncertainty in consumer inference. I am particularly interested in examining how various types of uncertainty (e.g., aleatory and epistemic) influence behavior and consumption patterns. This theme extends both my dissertation and ongoing studies as I seek to deepen our understanding of these complex but powerful relationships. Anchored in the field of judgment and decision-making, my research also intersects with areas such as artificial intelligence, branding, bias, and public policy.
Vanderbilt University - Owen Graduate School of Management
Senior Researcher, 2022 - present
Postdoctoral Scholar, 2021 - 2022
Employment
Education
University of Cincinnati - Carl H. Lindner College of Business
Ph.D., Marketing | Concentration: Information Processing, 2017 - 2021.
M.Sc., Marketing | Concentration: Consumer Psychology, 2016 - 2017.
B.B.A., Marketing | International Business, 2013 - 2016.
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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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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., Frank R. Kardes, and Steven S. Posavac (collecting data), "Revisiting Base-rate Neglect: An Epistemic Inference Hypothesis," targeting the Journal of Consumer Research.
Y. David Wu**, and Donald R. Gaffney (collecting data), “To Know Thyself, is to Protect Thy Privacy,” targeting the Journal of Consumer Research.
*Dissertation; **Student mentored
Full list available upon request.
In the Works
Select
Presentations
Gaffney, Donald R., Bryan M. Buechner, Susan Powell Mantel, Y. David Wu, Catherine Touchton, Emma Neybert, Steven S. Posavac, and Frank R. Kardes, (2025), “Consumer AI Aversion and Expectations in Human-AI Communications,” presented at the American Marketing Association Winter, Phoenix, AZ.
Gaffney, Donald R. (2024), “How to Learn: Weaponizing Uncertainty as a means to Break the Knowledge Illusion,” presented at the Stanford Institute of Medicine Summer Research Program, Stanford, CA. [Invited].
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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.
*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.