SHALENA SRNA Last updated June, 2017 The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Mobile: (707) 569-6927 727.6 Jon M. Huntsman Hall ssrna@wharton.upenn.edu 3730 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 Website: https://marketing.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/ssrna/ EDUCATION The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Ph.D., Marketing & Psychology. May, 2018 (Expected) Walter A. Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley B.S., Business Administration. May, 2013 RESEARCH INTERESTS Judgment and Decision Making Consumer Perceptions Consumer Motivation and Performance WORKING PAPERS (See abstracts in Appendix) Srna, Shalena, Rom Y. Schrift, and Gal Zauberman. The Illusion of Multitasking and Its Effect on Performance. Invited for revision at Psychological Science. Schrift, Rom Y., Jeffrey R. Parker, Gal Zauberman, and Shalena Srna. Multi-Stage Decisions Processes: The Impact of Attribute-Order on How Consumers Mentally Represent Their Choice. Under 2 nd round review at the Journal of Consumer Research. Cutright, Keisha M., Shalena Srna, and Adriana Samper. Suit Up and Shop: How Consumer Attire Influences Purchasing Decisions. In preparation. SELECTED RESEARCH IN PROGRESS (See abstracts in Appendix) A Prediction Gap in Effect of Income Tax on Effort with Gal Zauberman and Rom Y. Schrift. When Signaling Status Backfires with Alixandra Barasch and Deborah Small.
Shalena Srna 2 GRANTS AND AWARDS. Patty and Jay H. Baker Ph.D. Fellowship, Jay H. Baker Retail Center, 2017 (Total Awards: $5,127) The Russell Ackoff Doctoral Student Fellowship Award, Wharton Risk Management Center, 2014-2017 (Total Awards: $12,000) Wharton Doctoral Travel Grant, George James Term Fund, April & Nov. 2016 (Total Awards: $1,250) CHAIRED SYMPOSIUM Srna, Shalena (2015, October). What Makes You Pay? Features of Incentives and the Distribution of Benefits in Financial Behavior. Association for Consumer Research, New Orleans, LA. CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS (* Denotes presenting author) Srna, Shalena*, Rom Y. Schrift, and Gal Zauberman (2017, April). The Illusion of Multitasking and Its Effect on Performance. Annual University of Houston Doctoral Symposium, Houston, TX. Curight, Keisha, Shalena Srna, and Adriana Samper* (2017, February). Suit Up and Shop: How Consumer Attire Influences Purchasing Decisions. Society for Consumer Psychology, San Francisco, CA. Srna, Shalena*, Rom Y. Schrift, and Gal Zauberman (2017, February). The Illusion of Multitasking and Its Effect on Performance. Society for Consumer Psychology, San Francisco, CA. Srna, Shalena*, Gal Zauberman, and Rom Y. Schrift (2017, February). A Prediction Gap in Effect of Income Tax on Effort. Society for Consumer Psychology, San Francisco, CA. Srna, Shalena*, Rom Y. Schrift, and Gal Zauberman (2016, November). The Illusion of Multitasking and Its Effect on Performance. Society for Judgment and Decision Making, Boston, MA. Srna, Shalena*, Gal Zauberman, and Rom Y. Schrift (2016, November). A Prediction Gap in Effect of Income Tax on Effort. National Tax Association, Baltimore, MD. Srna, Shalena*, Rom Y. Schrift, and Gal Zauberman (2016, October). The Illusion of Multitasking and Its Effect on Performance. Association for Consumer Research, Berlin, Germany. Schrift, Rom Y. *, Jeffrey R. Parker, Gal Zauberman, and Shalena Srna (2016, June). Multi- Stage Decisions Change How Decision-Makers Categorize Their Chosen Option. Behavioral Decision Research in Management, Toronto, Canada.
Shalena Srna 3 Srna, Shalena*, Schrift, Rom Y., Zauberman, Gal (2016, June). Multitasking: Perception & Performance. Behavioral Decision Research in Management, Toronto, Canada. Srna, Shalena*, Rom Y. Schrift, and Gal Zauberman (2016, May). Multitasking: Perception & Performance. Trans-Atlantic Doctoral Conference, London, UK. Schrift, Rom Y., Jeffrey R. Parker*, Gal Zauberman, and Shalena Srna (2016, February). Decision-Tree Structures and Their Impact on Similarity Judgment and Replacement Option. Society for Consumer Psychology, St. Pete Beach, FL. Srna, Shalena*, Gal Zauberman, and Rom Y. Schrift (2015, November). A Prediction Gap in Effect of Income Tax on Effort. Society for Judgment and Decision Making, Chicago, IL. Srna, Shalena*, Gal Zauberman, and Rom Y. Schrift (2015, October). A Prediction Gap in Effect of Income Tax on Effort. Association for Consumer Research, New Orleans, LA. Schrift, Rom Y., Jeffrey R. Parker*, Gal Zauberman, and Shalena Srna (2015, October). Beyond the Choice Set: The Impact of Considering Similar Outside Options. Association for Consumer Research, New Orleans, LA. TEACHING EXPERIENCE Graduate Teaching Assistant at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania o Strategic Brand Management, Professor Barbara Kahn, Spring 2016 o Consumer Behavior, Professor Deborah Small, Spring 2015 o Psychology of Consumer Financial Decisions, Professor Gal Zauberman, Fall 2014 Marketing Instructor for the Leadership in the Business World Summer Program, Summer 2015 Teacher Development Program, Fall 2015 SERVICE Ad Hoc Reviewer Journal of Marketing Research Journal of Consumer Research Society for Consumer Psychology AFFILIATIONS Association for Consumer Research (ACR) Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP) Society for Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM) Penn Interdisciplinary Meeting of the Minds (PIMM), Co-president 2015
Shalena Srna 4 PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Essex S.P.A., Incorporated President, Chief Financial Officer, Secretary June 2012-Present RELEVANT COURSEWORK Consumer Behavior and Psychology Foundations of Decision Processes (Uri Simonsohn) Information Processing: Perspectives on Consumer Behavior (Patti Williams) Judgment and Decision Making: Perspectives on Consumer Behavior (Gal Zauberman) Judgment and Decision Making: Perspectives on Consumer Behavior-Audited (Deborah Small) Social Psychology (Philip Tetlock & Geoff Goodwin) Research and Quantitative Methods Applied Regression and Analysis of Variance (Paul Rosenbaum) Empirical Models in Marketing (Eric Bradlow) Introduction to Nonparametric Methods and Loglinear Models (Paul Rosenbaum) Measurement and Data Analysis in Marketing (Christophe Van den Bulte) Methods Stumblers: Pragmatic Solutions to Everyday Challenges in Behavioral Research-Audited (Uri Simonsohn) Research Methods in Marketing (J. Wesley Hutchison)
Shalena Srna 5 RECOMMENDATION LETTER WRITERS Rom Y. Schrift (Dissertation co-advisor) Assistant Professor of Marketing The Wharton School University of Pennsylvania Email: roms@wharton.upenn.edu Office: (215) 573-7021 Gal Zauberman (Dissertation co-advisor) Professor of Marketing Yale School of Management Yale University Email: zauberman@yale.edu Office: (203) 432-5037 Deborah Small Laura and John J. Pomerantz Professor of Marketing Professor of Psychology The Wharton School University of Pennsylvania Email: deborahs@wharton.upenn.edu Office: (215) 898-6494 Robert Meyer Frederick H. Ecker/MetLife Insurance Professor Professor of Marketing The Wharton School University of Pennsylvania Email: meyerr@wharton.upenn.edu Office: (215) 898-1826
Shalena Srna 6 APPENDIX I: DISSERTATION OVERVIEW The Perception of Multitasking Co-advisors: Rom Y. Schrift and Gal Zauberman Committee: Joseph Kable, Robert Meyer, and Deborah Small Multitasking is pervasive. With technological advancements, the desire, ability, and often necessity to engage in multiple activities concurrently are paramount. Although multitasking refers to the simultaneous execution of multiple tasks, most activities that require active attention cannot actually be done simultaneously. Therefore, multitasking is often a matter of perception. The first chapter of my dissertation demonstrates the malleability of people s multitasking perceptions. That is, I explore different factors that make individuals perceive the same activity as multitasking or single-tasking. I find that framing an activity as having different topics, sources, or incentives can make people feel like they are multitasking. The second chapter of my dissertation explores how the mere perception of multitasking impacts performance. Importantly, although previous literature found that engaging in multiple tasks may diminish performance, I find that, holding the activity constant, the mere perception of multitasking actually improves performance because it increases engagement. The third chapter of my dissertation directly explores some of the other marketing implications of these findings. In particular, across several studies using self-reported and physiological measures, I find that the perception of multitasking increases engagement with a task. Accordingly, I explore how such increase in engagement impacts several marketing relevant activities such as in-store and online shopping experiences, and the recall, enjoyment, and effectiveness of marketing communications.
Shalena Srna 7 APPENDIX II: SELECTED RESEARCH ABSTRACTS Srna, Shalena, Rom Y. Schrift, and Gal Zauberman. The Illusion of Multitasking and Its Effect on Performance. Invited for revision at Psychological Science. Multitasking is pervasive. With technological advancements, the desire, ability, and often necessity to engage in multiple activities concurrently are paramount. Although multitasking refers to the simultaneous execution of multiple tasks, most activities that require active attention cannot actually be done simultaneously. Therefore, whether a certain activity is considered multitasking is often a matter of subjective perception. The current paper demonstrates the malleability of what people perceive as multitasking, showing that the same activity may or may not be construed as multitasking. Importantly, although engaging in multiple tasks may diminish performance, we find that, holding the activity constant, the mere perception of multitasking actually improves performance. Across 23 paid-for-performance studies, totaling 6,768 participants, we find that those who perceived an activity as multitasking were more engaged, and consequently outperformed those who perceived that same activity as single-tasking. Schrift, Rom Y., Jeffrey R. Parker, Gal Zauberman, and Shalena Srna. Multi-Stage Decisions Processes: The Impact of Attribute-Order on How Consumers Mentally Represent Their Choice. Under 2 nd round review at the Journal of Consumer Research. With the ever-increasing number of options from which consumers can choose, many decisions are broken into stages. Whether using decision tools to sort, screen, and eliminate options, or intuitively trying to reduce the complexity of a choice, consumers often reach a decision by making sequential attribute-level choices. The current paper explores how the order in which attribute-level choices are made in such multi-stage decisions impacts how consumers mentally represent and categorize their chosen option. The authors find that attribute choices made in the initial stage play a dominant role in how the ultimately chosen option is mentally represented, while later attribute choices serve to update and refine the representation of that option. Across eight studies, the authors find that changing the order of attribute choices in multi-stage decision processes alters how consumers (i) describe the chosen option, (ii) intend to use it, (iii) perceive its similarity to other available options, and (iv) replace it (if necessary). Thus, while the extant decision-making literature has mainly explored how mental representations and categorization impact choice, the current paper demonstrates that the choice process itself can impact mental representations. The conceptual, methodological, and applied importance of these findings are discussed. Cutright, Keisha M., Shalena Srna, and Adriana Samper. Suit Up and Shop: How Consumer Attire Influences Purchasing Decisions. In preparation. Does the clothing you wear while shopping influence your likelihood of making a purchase? Although managers and consumers do not expect your clothing to influence your purchase likelihood, we demonstrate across six studies that formality of dress influences consumers purchase intent across a variety of retail domains. Specifically, we show that formal dress enhances feelings of social confidence (but not other types of confidence) in retail settings, which then leads to greater purchase intent. In addition to addressing alternative explanations
Shalena Srna 8 such as perceived resources, power and feelings of deservingness, we identify important boundary conditions. In particular, we demonstrate when individuals wearing more casual dress will attempt to compensate for their lower levels of social confidence and identify factors that significantly change the degree to which formality of dress influences purchase intent (e.g., degree of expected social interaction, appropriateness of dress). A Prediction Gap in the Effect of Income Tax on Effort with Gal Zauberman and Rom Y. Schrift Existing evidence suggests that people are tax averse, causing them to avoid loss associated with taxes beyond equivalent costs in their purchase and policy decisions. The present research proposes and shows that people predict that they will be averse to income tax, but the actual relationship between income taxes and productivity is not straightforward. Across four incentive compatible studies (total N=2,506), we show that people s predictions of how different income tax schedules of tax money will influence productivity, satisfaction, and perceptions of fairness do not match how people actually respond in an experimental pay-per-performance setting. When Signaling Status Backfires with Alixandra Barasch and Deborah Small. Conspicuous consumption allows people to signal status, which is advantageous for attaining resources and social influence. However, we find that conspicuous consumers are perceived as self-interested, rendering signaling status disadvantageous for cooperation. Specifically, conspicuous consumers are perceived as less moral and more self-interested, and are thus less preferred as partners in cooperative tasks. Furthermore, individuals show some awareness of the benefits of modesty and refrain from signaling status when it is advantageous to do so. Across six studies (N=1,824), this paper demonstrates the advantages of remaining modest in cooperative contexts.