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Nicole Mead
Nicole Mead
Professor
Marketing
0000-0002-9621-4999

Nicole uncovers novel psychological insights that can be harnessed to improve personal, societal, and environmental well-being. She is the founder and director of the Well-Being Research Lab (WiRL) and the author of the Psychology Today blog The Happy Consumer. Nicole’s award-winning research has been published in top-tier journals (e.g., Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Consumer Research, and Journal of Marketing) and covered in international press (e.g., Scientific American, Washington Post, National Geographic, Business Insider, Forbes, Atlantic, etc).

Nicole received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at Florida State University. She brings an international perspective, previously holding appointments in the Netherlands (Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University), Australia (the University of Melbourne), and Canada (Schulich School of Business, York University). Nicole was formerly an Area Editor for the International Journal of Research in Marketing and is currently ERB member for Journal of Consumer Research and International Journal of Research in Marketing.

2009 - PhD in Social Psychology, Florida State University

2007 - MSc in Social Psychology, Florida State University

2004 - BSc in Psychology, University of British Columbia  

Meaning, Well-Being, Sustainability, Financial Savings, Policy Support 

  • Wahab, Mejda, Mead, Nicole L., Desmercieres, Stevenson, Lardeux, Virginie, Dugast, Emilie, Baumeister, Roy F., Solinas, Marcello (2024). Cognitive effort increases the intensity of rewards. PNAS nexus, 3 (10).
  • Zenkić, Jay, Mead, Nicole L., Millet, Kobe (2024). When cash costs you: The pain of holding coins over banknotes. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 34 (4), 641-649.
  • Mead, Nicole L., Williams, Lawrence E. (2023). The pursuit of meaning and the preference for less expensive options. Journal of Consumer Research, 49 (5), 741-761.
  • Zenkić, Jay, Millet, Kobe, Mead, Nicole L. (2023). Fairness is based on quality, not just quantity. Judgment and Decision Making, 18.
  • Mead, Nicole L., Williams, Lawrence E. (2022). Can't buy me meaning? Lay theories impede people from deriving meaning and well-being from consumption. Current Opinion in Psychology, 46.
  • Mead, Nicole L., Baumeister, Roy F. (2021). Do objects fuel thyself? The relationship between objects and self-regulation. Current Opinion in Psychology, 39, 16-19.
  • Stuppy, Anika, Mead, Nicole L., Van Osselaer, Stijn M.J. (2020). I Am, therefore I buy: Low self-esteem and the pursuit of self-verifying consumption. Journal of Consumer Research, 46 (5), 956-973.
  • Mead, Nicole L., Baumeister, Roy F., Stuppy, Anika, Vohs, Kathleen D. (2018). Power increases the socially toxic component of narcissism among individuals with high baseline testosterone. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147 (4), 591-596.
  • Mead, Nicole L., Patrick, Vanessa M., Hofmann, Wilhelm (2016). Simple pleasures, small annoyances, and goal progress in daily life. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 1 (4), 527-539.
  • Mead, Nicole L., Patrick, Vanessa M. (2016). The taming of desire: Unspecific postponement reduces desire for and consumption of postponed temptations. Journal of personality and social psychology, 110 (1), 20-35.
  • Savani, Krishna, Mead, Nicole L., Stillman, Tyler, Vohs, Kathleen D. (2016). No match for money: Even in intimate relationships and collectivistic cultures, reminders of money weaken sociomoral responses. Self and Identity, 15 (3), 342-355.
  • Stuppy, Anika, Mead, Nicole L., Van Osselaer, Stijn M.J. (2016). Wallowingin misery: Consumers with low self-esteem verify negative self-views by choosing miserable products. Advances in Consumer Research, 44, 643-644.
  • Yang, Qing, Wu, Xiaochang, Zhou, Xinyue, Mead, Nicole L., Vohs, Kathleen D., Baumeister, Roy F. (2013). Diverging effects of clean versus dirty money on attitudes, values, and interpersonal behavior. Journal of personality and social psychology, 104 (3), 473-489.
  • Mead, Nicole L., Maner, Jon K. (2012). On keeping your enemies close: Powerful leaders seek proximity to ingroup power threats. Journal of personality and social psychology, 102 (3), 576-591.
  • Mead, Nicole, Maner, Jon (2012). When Me versus You Becomes Us versus Them: How Intergroup Competition Shapes Ingroup Psychology. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6 (8), 566-574.
  • DeWall, C. Nathan, Baumeister, Roy F., Mead, Nicole L., Vohs, Kathleen D. (2011). How Leaders Self-Regulate Their Task Performance: Evidence That Power Promotes Diligence, Depletion, and Disdain. Journal of personality and social psychology, 100 (1), 47-65.
  • Gino, Francesca, Schweitzer, Maurice E., Mead, Nicole L., Ariely, Dan (2011). Unable to resist temptation: How self-control depletion promotes unethical behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 115 (2), 191-203.
  • Mead, Nicole L., Baumeister, Roy F., Stillman, Tyler F., Rawn, Catherine D., Vohs, Kathleen D. (2011). Social exclusion causes people to spend and consume strategically in the service of affiliation. Journal of Consumer Research, 37 (5), 902-919.
  • Maner, Jon K., Mead, Nicole L. (2010). The essential tension between leadership and power: when leaders sacrifice group goals for the sake of self-interest.. Journal of personality and social psychology, 99 (3), 482-497.
  • Caruso, Eugene M., Mead, Nicole L., Balcetis, Emily (2009). Political partisanship influences perception of biracial candidates' skin tone. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106 (48), 20168-20173.
  • Mead, Nicole L., Baumeister, Roy F., Gino, Francesca, Schweitzer, Maurice E., Ariely, Dan (2009). Too tired to tell the truth: Self-control resource depletion and dishonesty. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45 (3), 594-597.
  • Jacob, Jenet I., Allen, Sarah, Hill, E. Jeffrey, Mead, Nicole L., Ferris, Maria (2008). Work interference with dinnertime as a mediator and moderator between work hours and work and family outcomes. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 36 (4), 310-327.
  • Vohs, Kathleen D., Mead, Nicole L., Goode, Miranda R. (2008). Merely activating the concept of money changes personal and interpersonal behavior. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17 (3), 208-212.
  • Hill, E. Jeffrey, Mead, Nicole Timmons, Dean, Lukas Ray, Hafen, Dawn M., Gadd, Robyn, Palmer, Alexis A., Ferris, Maria S. (2006). Researching the 60-hour dual-earner workweek: An alternative to the "opt-out revolution". American Behavioral Scientist, 49 (9), 1184-1203.
  • Vohs, Kathleen D., Mead, Nicole L., Goode, Miranda R. (2006). The psychological consequences of money. Science, 314 (5802), 1154-1156.
  • DeWall, C. Nathan, Baumeister, Roy F., Mead, Nicole L., Vohs, Kathleen D. (2018). How leaders self-regulate their task performance: Evidence that power promotes diligence, depletion, and disdain. Self-Regulation and Self-Control. : Selected Works of Roy F. Baumeister. Taylor & Francis Group, 340-378.
  • Stuppy, Anika, Mead, Nicole L. (2016). Heroic leaders and despotic tyrants: How power and status shape leadership. Handbook of heroism and heroic leadership. Taylor & Francis, 476-494.
  • Mead, Nicole L., Stuppy, Anika (2014). Two sides of the same coin: Money can promote and hinder interpersonal processes. The Psychological Science of Money. Springer New York, Vol. 9781493909599, 243-262.
  • Mead, Nicole L., Alquist, Jessica L., Baumeister, Roy F. (2010). Ego depletion and the limited resource model of self-control. Self Control in Society, Mind, and Brain. Oxford University Press, 375–388.
  • Rawn, Catherine D., Mead, Nicole L., Kerkhof, Peter, Vohs, Kathleen D. (2007). The effects of self-esteem and ego threat on decision making. Do emotions help or hurt decision making?. A Hedgefoxian Perspective. Russell Sage Foundation, Vol. 9781610445436, 157-182.