Professor of Management,

Columbia University

Sheena S. Iyengar has been a professor in the Management Division of Columbia University Business School since 1998, and also holds an adjunct appointment in the Psychology Department. She has previously taught Leading and Managing in Organizations, Entrepreneurial Creativity, Managerial Decision-Making, and (as a visiting professor at London Business School) Developing Effective Managers and Organisations, as well as doctoral seminars in organization behavior and research methods.  She was recently selected by the Columbia University’s President’s Office to be an instructor at the World Economics Forum in Geneva, Switzerland.

Iyengar received a dual degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992, consisting of a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of Business and a B.A. in psychology with a minor in English from the College of Arts and Sciences.  In 1997 she completed her Ph.D. in social psychology from Stanford University.  Her dissertation, entitled “Choice and its Discontents,” received the prestigious Best Dissertation Award for 1998 from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology.  She received the Presidential Early Career Award from the National Science Foundation in 2001, and in 2005 was invited to serve as a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.  She was recently selected as an Academic Member of the Behavioral Finance (BeFi) Forum.  Throughout her career, her research has not only appeared in many respected academic journals but is also regularly cited in the media, including periodicals such as Fortune and Time magazines, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, on National Public Radio, and in popular books including Blink by Malcolm Gladwell and The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz.

One of the leading experts on the psychology of choice, Iyengar is interested in how the ideals of choice contrast with the realities faced by choosers.  One area of particular interest is the role of choice in people’s business lives.  Supported by Citigroup, she has examined how choice functions as an incentive in the workplace, affecting employees’ job satisfaction and physical health.  She has researched how the choice of funds in retirement savings plans affects behavioral patterns such as participation rate and asset allocation.  Another area of Iyengar’s interest is the role of choice in people’s personal lives.  Her research has explored the assortment of options offered to consumers in activities such as wine-tasting and speed-dating and in venues such as manicure salons, magazine aisles, grocery stores, and chocolate shops with the support of companies including AOL/Time Warner and Godiva.  She has studied the role of choice in car dealerships and bespoke suit tailors, Communist and post-Communist countries, career decisions, and medical treatments.  In summary, the overarching theme of Iyengar’s research is the importance of choice in all aspects of people’s lives, from the seemingly mundane to the most consequential.

Currently, Iyengar is writing her first book, an exploration of the mysteries of choice in everyday life, to be published by Twelve, an imprint of Hatchette Book Group.  “Sheena Iyengar’s research on personal choice is groundbreaking and fascinating in itself,” said Twelve publisher Jonathan Karp, “but what’s most exciting about this project is the depth of her insight as a writer.  Anyone who wants to understand why we make the choices we do will want to read this book.”