Dr Gabriele Paolacci

Profile
Gabriele Paolacci is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. Gabriele joined RSM after graduate studies at Ca' Foscari University of Venice (where he got his PhD) and at Ross School of Business, University of Michigan (where he was a visiting scholar). In his research, Gabriele's focuses on consumer judgment and decision-making and on the methodology of data collection in behavioral science. His research has been published in journals such as Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Psychological Science, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Trends in Cognitive Sciences. He is a recipient of a VENI research grant, and currently teaches Psychology & Business (M.Sc.) and Influencing People: Psychology and Practice (undergraduate).
Professional experience
Associate Professor
Erasmus University Rotterdam
RSM - Rotterdam School of Management
Department of Marketing Management
Publications
Key Publications
- G. Paolacci & J. Chandler (2014). Inside the Turk: Understanding Mechanical Turk as a Participant Pool. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23 (3), 184-188. doi: 10.1177/0963721414531598
Professional Publications (2)
- G. Paolacci (2018). Crowdsourced consumer data: how do we make sure it's good? RSM Discovery - Management Knowledge, 34 (2), 10-11.
- G. Paolacci (2015). Consumer insights: think of yourself when buying for others. RSM Discovery - Management Knowledge, 23 (3), 12-13.
Scholarly Publications (18)
- G. Paolacci & G. Yalcin (2020). Fewer but Poorer: Benevolent Partiality in Prosocial Preferences. Judgment and decision making, 15 (2), 173-181.
- G. Paolacci & J. Chandler (2018). Direct replications in the era of open sampling (commentary on “Making replication mainstream” by Zwaan, Etz, Lucas, and Donnellan). Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 41 (2018), E144. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X18000808
- E. Leung, G. Paolacci & S. Puntoni (2018). Man Versus Machine: Resisting Automation in Identity-Based Consumer Behavior. Journal of Marketing Research, 55 (6), 818-831. doi: 10.1509/jmr.16.0443
- S. Rick, G. Paolacci & K. Burson (2018). Income Tax and the Motivation to Work. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 31 (5), 619-631. doi: 10.1002/bdm.2078
- R.A. Zwaan, D. Pecher, G. Paolacci, S. Bouwmeester, P.P.J.L. Verkoeijen, K. Dijkstra & R. Zeelenberg (2018). Participant Nonnaiveté and the reproducibility of cognitive psychology. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25 (5), 1968-1972. doi: 10.3758/s13423-017-1348-y
- J.K. Goodman & G. Paolacci (2017). Crowdsourcing Consumer Research. Journal of Consumer Research, 44 (1), 196-210. doi: 10.1093/jcr/ucx047
- N. Stewart, J. Chandler & G. Paolacci (2017). Crowdsourcing Samples in Cognitive Science. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 21 (10), 736-748. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2017.06.007
- J. Chandler & G. Paolacci (2017). Lie for a Dime: When most prescreening responses are honest but most study participants are imposters. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8 (5), 500-508. doi: 10.1177/1948550617698203
- A. Dannenberg, A. Löschel, G. Paolacci, C. Reif & A. Tavoni (2015). On the Provision of Public Goods with Probabilistic and Ambiguous Thresholds. Environmental and Resource Economics, 61 (3), 365-383. doi: 10.1007/s10640-014-9796-6
- J. Chandler, G. Paolacci, E. Peer, P. Mueller & K.A. Ratliff (2015). Using nonnaive participants can reduce effect sizes. Psychological Science, 26 (7), 1131-1139. doi: 10.1177/0956797615585115
- N. Stewart, C. Ungemach, A. Harris, D. Bartels, B. Newell, G. Paolacci & J. Chandler (2015). The Average Laboratory Samples a Population of 7,300 Amazon Mechanical Turk Workers. Judgment and decision making, 10 (5), 479-491.
- G. Paolacci, L.M. Straeter & I.E. de Hooge (2015). Give Me Your Self: Gifts are Liked More When They Match the Giver's Characteristics. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 25 (3), 487-494. doi: 10.1016/j.jcps.2015.01.006
- J. Chandler, P. Mueller & G. Paolacci (2014). Nonnaïveté Among Amazon Mechanical Turk Workers: Consequences and Solutions for Behavioral Researchers. Behavior Research Methods, 46 (1), 112-130. doi: 10.3758/s13428-013-0365-7
- G. Paolacci & J. Chandler (2014). Inside the Turk: Understanding Mechanical Turk as a Participant Pool. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23 (3), 184-188. doi: 10.1177/0963721414531598
- S.T.L.R. Sweldens, S. Puntoni, G. Paolacci & M. Vissers (2014). The Bias in the Bias: Comparative Optimism as a Function of Event Social Undesirability. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 124 (2), 229-244. doi: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2014.03.007
- J. Chandler, G. Paolacci & P. Mueller (2013). Risks and Rewards of Crowdsourcing Marketplaces. In Pietro Michelucci (Ed.), Handbook of Human Computation (pp. 377-392). Springer
- G. Paolacci, K. Burson & S. Rick (2011). The intermediate alternative effect: Considering a small tradeoff increases subsequent willingness to make large tradeoffs. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 21 (4), 384-392. doi: 10.1016/j.jcps.2011.04.005
- G. Paolacci, J. Chandler & P. Ipeirotis (2010). Running experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Judgment and decision making, 5 (5), 411-419.
Media
Media items
- 3 ways you can become a better gift-giver according to science
- Do Income Taxes Decrease Worker Motivation?
Filing the annual income tax return is never a pleasant chore, but do taxes affect your motivation to work? The findings from economic research have been mixed. Rick, Burson and co-author Gabriele Paolacci of the Rotterdam School…
CPA Thursday, 20 April 2017 - Will paying income taxes make you work harder?
Filing the annual income tax return is never a pleasant chore, but do taxes affect your motivation to work? The findings from economic research have been mixed. Rick, Burson and co-author Gabriele Paolacci of the Rotterdam School…
Psych.org Monday, 17 April 2017 - Will paying income taxes make you work harder?
Filing the annual income tax return is never a pleasant chore, but do taxes affect your motivation to work? The findings from economic research have been mixed. Rick, Burson and co-author Gabriele Paolacci of the Rotterdam School…
My Science Thursday, 13 April 2017 - The Fine Line Between Optimism and Fakery
To fill in the gaps, my co-authors (Stefano Puntoni, Gabriele Paolacci, and Maarten Vissers of Rotterdam School of Management) and I revisited data from 28 past studies on optimism bias, encompassing 8,826 participants in all. Our…
Knowledge Monday, 23 January 2017 - Psychologists grow increasingly dependent on online research subjects
Gabriele Paolacci and other researchers made the first effort to estimate the effective MTurk research population, the results sent shock waves through the community last year. Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is an online…
Science Magazine Tuesday, 7 June 2016
Discovery items
Technology shapes behaviour of consumers and their consumption and poses opportunities and challenges for future development.
Making products more automated is good, right? Not always. Sometimes customers prefer less-automation, and it has everything to do with self-image.
Over 15.000 consumer behaviour studies have used participants on online marketplace MTurk. How do researchers make sure such data is good?
Courses
Influencing people: psychology and practice
- Study year: 2020/2021, 2019/2020, 2018/2019, 2017/2018, 2016/2017, 2015/2016, 2014/2015
- Code: BKBMIN017
- Level: Bachelor, Bachelor 3, Bachelor 3
Thesis Topic Development
- Study year: 2020/2021, 2019/2020, 2018/2019, 2017/2018
- Code: BM06MM
- ECTS: 1 Level: Master
Psychology & Business
- Study year: 2020/2021, 2019/2020
- Code: BM25MIM
- ECTS: 4 Level: Master
MM Master Thesis
- Study year: 2020/2021
- Code: BMMTMM
- ECTS: 16 Level: Master
Marketing Management Thesis Clinic
- Study year: 2020/2021, 2019/2020, 2018/2019, 2017/2018
- Code: BMRMMM
- ECTS: 4 Level: Master
Past courses
Managerial decision making & negotiation
- Study year: 2018/2019, 2017/2018, 2016/2017, 2015/2016
- Code: BM10MIM
- ECTS: 2 Level: Master
Crowdsourcing Data Collection
- Study year: 2014/2015
- Code: BERMAMC011
- ECTS: 3 Level: Master
International Marketing Research
- Study year: 2014/2015
- Code: BAB011
- ECTS: 3 Level: Bachelor 2, Bachelor 2, Pre-master
Managerial decision making & negotiation
- Study year: 2014/2015, 2013/2014, 2012/2013
- Code: BKM10GM
- ECTS: 2 Level: Master
Marketing research
- Study year: 2014/2015, 2013/2014, 2012/2013
- Code: BKB0024
- ECTS: 3 Level: Bachelor 2, Pre-master
International Marketing Research
- Study year: 2013/2014, 2012/2013
- Code: BAB 11
- ECTS: 3
International Marketing Research
- Study year: 2012/2013
- Code: BAB11
- ECTS: 3 Level: Bachelor 2, Bachelor 2
Marketing management honours class
- Study year: 2012/2013
- Code: BKMME171
- ECTS: 10 Level: Master
Awards
How consumers consume technology – and are affected by it

Technology shapes behaviour of consumers and their consumption and poses opportunities and challenges for future development.
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