Ahreum Maeng

Ahreum Maeng
  • Associate Professor
  • Marketing and Business Law academic area

Contact Info

785-864-4568
Capitol Federal Hall, Room 2183
Lawrence

Biography —

Ahreum Maeng is an associate professor of marketing at the KU School of Business.

Her research is in the area social cognition and social perception with specific emphasis on the role of adaptive psychological mechanisms, especially emotion and motivation, playing in social contexts in shaping judgment and decision-making. She examines a wide range of social phenomena from individuals’ face perceptions to social crowding to answer questions about how consumer decisions are influenced by these social contexts.

Maeng's work has published at top marketing and psychology journals including the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing Research, and the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and has been featured in a variety of media outlets including The Wall Street Journal and Science Daily. She has intensive work experience at the world's top-notch advertising agencies including TBWA and Dentsu, Young & Rubicam.

Education —

Ph.D. in Marketing, University of Wisconsin, Madison
M.S. in Marketing, University of Alabama
MBA in (Concentration in Marketing), Hanyang University, South Korea
B.A. in Advertising and Public Relations, Hanyang University, South Korea

Research —

Research interests:

  • Social Cognition
  • Social Perception
  • Motivation and Emotion
  • Crowding
  • Threat
  • Dominance
  • Power
  • Status
  • Social Class
  • Risk Perception

Selected Publications —

Maeng, A., & Aggarwal, P. (2018). Facing Dominance: Anthropomorphism and the Effect of Product Face Ratios on Consumer Preferences [Journal Articles]. Journal of Consumer Research, 44(5), 1104–1122. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucx090
Maeng, A., & Aggarwal, P. (2017). Gaining Power through Dominant Looking Products: The Influence of Social Inequality on Consumption Behavior [Book Chapters]. In D. Maheswaran & T. Puliyel (Eds.), Perspectives on Indian Consumer Behavior. Oxford University Press.
O’Guinn, T., Tanner, R., & Maeng, A. (2015). Turning to Space: Social Density, Social Class and the Value of Things in Stores [Journal Articles]. Journal of Consumer Research, 42(2), 196–213. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucv010
Maeng, A., & Aggarwal, P. (2015). Dominant Designs: The Effect of Product Face-Ratio on Perceived Product Dominance and Consumer Preferences [Book Chapters]. In Psychology of Design: Creating Consumer Desire.
Maeng, A., Tanner, R., & Soman, D. (2013). Conservative When Crowded: Social Crowding and Consumer Choices [Journal Articles]. Journal of Marketing Research, 50(6), 739–752. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.12.0118
Maeng, A., & Tanner, R. J. (2013). Construing in a Crowd: The Effects of Social Crowding on Mental Construal [Journal Articles]. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49(6), 1084–1088. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.07.010
Tanner, R. J., & Maeng, A. (2012). A Tiger and a President: Imperceptible Celebrity Facial Cues Influence Trust and Preference [Journal Articles]. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(4), 769–783.