Assistant Professor
Marketing
About
Celia Gaertig is a behavioral marketing researcher who studies how consumers make judgments and decisions under uncertainty.
Gaertig’s research challenges common assumptions about how consumers react to uncertainty, showing that uncertainty is not always penalized and can sometimes increase advisors’ credibility or influence. She also studies how people make estimates under uncertainty, including how they combine numeric and verbal probabilities and how “inner crowd” judgments can improve accuracy.
Her research has received multiple honors, including the 2025 Society for Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM) Best Paper Award, multiple best paper finalist awards, and recognition as a 2025 Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Young Scholar.
Her work has been published in a number of prestigious academic journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, Management Science, Psychological Science, the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and PNAS.
Gaertig earned a PhD from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She also completed a BSc in Psychology (University of Freiburg) and a BA in Business (DHBW Karlsruhe), both in Germany.
Expertise and Research Interests
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Consumer Behavior
- Decision Making Under Uncertainty
- Celia Gaertig, Joseph P. Simmons. Why (and When) Are Uncertain Price Promotions More Effective Than Equivalent Sure Discounts?. Journal of Consumer Research, 52(5), 1022-1042.
2026 - Beidi Hu, Celia Gaertig, Berkeley J. Dietvorst. How Should Time Estimates Be Structured to Increase Customer Satisfaction?. Management Science, 71(9), 7497-7515.
2025 - Robert Mislavsky, Celia Gaertig. Premature Predictions: Accurate Forecasters Are Not Viewed As More Competent For Earlier Predictions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 153(1), 159-170.
2024 - Celia Gaertig, Joseph P. Simmons. Are People More Or Less Likely To Follow Advice That Is Accompanied By A Confidence Interval?. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(7), 2008-2025.
2023 - Robert Mislavsky, Celia Gaertig. Combining Probability Forecasts: 60% and 60% Is 60%, but Likely and Likely Is Very Likely. Management Science.
2022 - Celia Gaertig, Joseph P. Simmons. The Psychology of Second Guesses: Implications for the Wisdom of the Inner Crowd. Management Science.
2022 - Samantha Kassirer, Emma E. Levine, Celia Gaertig. Decisional Autonomy Undermines Advisees’ Judgments of Experts In Medicine And In Life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
2020 - Joshua Lewis, Celia Gaertig, Joseph P. Simmons. Extremeness Aversion Is a Cause of Anchoring. Psychological Science.
2019 - Celia Gaertig, Alixandra Barasch, Emma E. Levine, Maurice E. Schweitzer. When Does Anger Boost Status?. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
2019 - Celia Gaertig, Joseph P. Simmons. Do People Inherently Dislike Uncertain Advice?. Psychological Science.
2018
At Haas since 2021
2021–present, Assistant Professor, Marketing Group, Haas School of Business
2019–2021, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago
- Ad hoc Reviewer: Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Judgment and Decision Making, Management Science, Organizational Behavioral and Human Decision Processes, Social Psychological and Personality Science, Psychological Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
- Conference Reviewer: Behavioral Decision Research and Management (BDRM), Society for Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM), Society of Consumer Psychology (SCP)
Marketing Science Institute, Young Scholar
2025
Winner, SJDM Best Paper Award
2025
Finalist, INFORMS Decision Analysis Society Publication Award
2024
Finalist, Exeter Prize for Research in Experimental Economics, Decision Theory, and Behavioral Economics
2023
Barbara and Gerson Bakar Faculty Fellow (acknowledges young professors with extraordinary potential at Haas)
2023
“Club 6” (Haas award for faculty who receive mean teaching evaluations > 6.0/7.0)
2023–2026
Runner Up, Hillel Einhorn New Investigator Award, Society for Judgment and Decision Making
2020
Winkelman Fellowship Grant, The Wharton School
2016–2019
Wharton Risk Center Russell Ackoff Doctoral Student Fellowship Award
2015–2019
Paul R. Kleindorfer Scholar Award
2017
Marjorie Weiler Prize for Excellence in Writing
2015
- Decision Making, MBA 253: Spring 2022–2026
- Decision Making, UGBA 157: Spring 2023–2026