Syon Bhanot, Crystal Hall, Sebastian Jilke, Dennis Kramer, Lizzie Martin, Shibeal O’Flaherty, Tyler Simko, and Mary Steffel (2024), “Lessons Learned from Applying Behavioral Science in the U.S. Federal Government: Advice for Effective Collaborations between Behavioral Scientists and Policymakers,” forthcoming at Behavioral Science and Policy.

Blunden, Hayley, and Mary Steffel (2023), “The Downside of Decision Delegation: When Transferring Decision Incurs Interpersonal Costs.” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 176, 104251.

Barry Kappes, Heather, Mattie Toma, Rekha Balu, Nuole Chen, Rebecca Johnson, Jessica Leight, Saad Omer, Mary Steffel, Kris-Stella Trump, David Yokum, Russ Burnett, Elana Safran, Pompa Debroy (2023), “Lessons for COVID-19 Vaccination from Eight Federal Government Communication Evaluations.” Behavioral Science and Policy, 9 (1), 11-24.

Sacarny, Adam, Elana Safran, Mary Steffel, Jacob R. Dunham, Orolo D. Abili, Lobat Mohajeri, Patricia Oh, Alan Sim, Robert E. Brutcher, and Christopher Spevak (2022), “Effect of Pharmacist E-mail Alerts on Concurrent Prescribing of Opioids and Benzodiazepines by Prescribers and Primary Care Managers: A Randomized Clinical Trial.” JAMA Health Forum, 3 (9), e223378. 

Steffel, Mary, Elanor F. Williams, and Stephan Carney (2022), “Empowering Patients to Engage with Health Decisions: Making Medical Choices Feel Easy Increases Patient Participation.” Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 7 (2), 154-63.

Garcia-Rada, Ximena, Mary Steffel, Elanor F. Williams, and Michael Norton (2022), "Consumers Value Effort over Ease When Caring for Close Others," Journal of Consumer Research, 48 (6), 970-90. Click Here for PDF.

• Featured in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, The Conversation, NPR

Steffel, Mary, and Elanor F. Williams (2021), “Do Our Choices Tell Us Who We Are? It Depends on How Easy or Difficult They Were to Make,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 31 (4), 784-91. Click Here for PDF.

Wu, Ruomeng, Mary Steffel, and Sharon Shavitt (2021), “Buying Gifts for Multiple Recipients: How Culture Affects Whose Desires Are Prioritized," Journal of Business Research, 132, 10-20. Click Here for PDF.

Dellaert, Benedict, Suzanne Shu, Theo Arentze, Tom Baker, Kristin Diehl, Bas Donkers, Nathanael Fast, Gerald Haubl, Heidi Johnson, Uma Karmarkar, Harmen Oppewal, Bernd Schmitt, Juliana Schroeder, Stephen Spiller, and Mary Steffel (2020), “Consumer Decisions with Artificially Intelligent Voice Assistants,” Marketing Letters, 31, 335-47. Click Here for PDF.

Steffel, Mary, Elanor F. Williams, and David Tannenbaum (2019), “Does Changing Defaults Save Lives? Effects of Presumed Consent Organ Donation Policies,” Behavioral Science and Policy, 5 (1), 69-89. Click Here for PDF.

Steffel, Mary, and Elanor F. Williams (2018), “Delegating Decisions: Recruiting Others to Make Choices We Might Regret.” Journal of Consumer Research, 44 (5), 1015-32. Click Here for PDF.

Steffel, Mary, Elanor F. Williams, and Ruth Pogacar (2016), “Ethically Deployed Defaults: Transparency and Consumer Protection Through Disclosure and Preference Articulation.” Journal of Marketing Research, 53 (5), 865-80. Click Here for PDF.

• Transformative Consumer Research Grant Winner (2015)

• Featured in Harvard Business Review, The Conversation, The Chicago Tribune, Policy Shop Blog, Scholarly Insight Blog

Williams, Elanor F., and Mary Steffel (2014), “Legitimate Enablement or Unfair Embellishment?: Double Standards In The Use of Enhancing Products by Self and Others.” Journal of Consumer Research, 41 (2), 506-25. Click Here for PDF.

• Featured in TIME Business

Steffel, Mary, and Robyn LeBoeuf (2014), “Over-Individuation in Gift Giving: Shopping for Multiple Recipients Leads Givers to Choose Unique but Less Preferred Gifts.” Journal of Consumer Research, 40 (6), 1167-80. Click Here for PDF.

• Society for Consumer Psychology Dissertation Proposal Competition Winner (2011)

• Featured in USA Today, NBC News, Today Show, TIME Magazine, Scientific American, Harvard Business Review, New York Magazine, The Guardian, Bloomberg View, Women’s Health Magazine, Redbook Magazine, WBEZ Chicago Public Radio, KGO San Francisco: Consumer Talk, Main Street: Smart Spending, Yahoo! News, Daily Mail

Steffel, Mary, and Daniel M. Oppenheimer (2009), “Happy By What Standard? The Role Of Interpersonal And Intrapersonal Comparisons In Ratings Of Happiness,” Social Indicators Research, 92 (1), 69-80. Click Here for PDF.

• Summarized in an invited entry in the Encyclopedia of Quality of Life Research

Pronin, Emily, John J. Fleming, and Mary Steffel (2008), “Value Revelations: Disclosure Is In The Eye Of The Beholder,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95 (4), 795-809. Click Here for PDF.

Johnson, Eric J., Mary Steffel, and Daniel G. Goldstein (July, 2005), “Making Better Decisions: From Measuring To Constructing Preferences,” Health Psychology, 24 (4 Suppl), S17-22. Click Here for PDF.

Elkin, Elena B., Mark E. Cowen, Daniel Cahill, Mary Steffel, and Michael W. Kattan (2004), “Preference Assessment Method Affects Decision Analytic Recommendations: A Prostate Cancer Treatment Example,” Medical Decision Making, 24 (5), 504-10. Click Here for PDF. 

Williams, Elanor F., Mary Steffel, and Daniella Kupor. “Should We Encourage the Good or Discourage the Bad? Consumers’ Reactions to Nudges Depends on How They Are Framed.”

Steffel, Mary, Elanor F. Williams, and Robyn LeBoeuf. “Overly Specific Gift Giving: Givers Choose Personalized but More-Restrictive and Less-Preferred Gifts.”

• Georgetown Consumer Market Insights Challenge Award Winner (2014)

• Featured in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Men's Health Magazine, Yahoo! Health, Consumer Affairs

Jenkins, Mason, Paul Fombelle, and Mary Steffel. “When Apology Is Not the Best Policy: The Negative Impact of Apologies for Ambiguous Service Failures.”