Dr Cathrine Jansson-Boyd

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Reader in Psychology
Faculty:
Faculty of Science and Engineering
School:
Psychology, Sport and Sensory Science
Location:
Cambridge
Areas of Expertise:
Societies and Groups
Research Supervision:
Yes

Cathrine is a consumer psychologist with a particular interest in tactile perception and environmentally friendly consumption. Additionally, she is interested in how consumers aesthetically evaluate products and consumer environments.

[email protected]

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Background

Cathrine has written two books (with more in production), conducted research for large organisations including Cambridgeshire County Council and Unilever, published many articles and given numerous talks on consumer psychology-based topics. Currently she is teaching consumer and social psychology but has previously taught other areas including environmental psychology, cognitive psychology and occupational psychology. Cathrine has also held academically related positions at the London Metropolitan University, Birkbeck and London School of Economics.

Research interests

Cathrine’s research interests fall into two categories, consumer psychology and aesthetic research. She's particularly interested in the following areas:

  • the role of touch in product evaluation
  • tactile and visual influences upon aesthetic appreciation
  • operationalism of aesthetic concepts.

Cathrine is a member of our Cognition Group which forms part of our ARU Centre for Mind and Behaviour.

Areas of research supervision
  • Tactile perception (influence on evaluation, choice and decision making of products)
  • Aesthetic evaluation of products and retail environments
  • Consumption and happiness
  • Environmentally linked consumption

Find out more about our Psychology PhD.

Teaching

Course Leader, MSc Consumer Psychology

Memberships, editorial boards
  • Society of Consumer Psychology
  • American Psychological Assocation
Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

Consultancy

  • Betty TV (2013), acted as advisor for a series made for Channel 4 about shopping
  • House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (2011).Understanding consumer decision making: One approach to guiding consumers to make sustainable food choices. Report submitted for the ‘Sustainable Food’ call
  • Skills@work, Anglia Ruskin University (2011), acted as advisor on what should be taught on the psychology-based module included on BA (Hons) Sales for Harrods, the department store
  • BBC Science (2009), provided background information for a program on how to improve your memory
  • J Sainsbury (2008), provided feedback on survey materials used to investigate consumer satisfaction. Sainsbury’s is one of the UK’s leading supermarkets
  • Office of Fair Trading (2007), invited to write a report upon selected factors that affect consumer decision making.
  • Coutts Retail Communications (2005), acted as an advisor on research collaboration between Coutts Retail Communications and Disney

Grants

  • Essex Police (2015), a team at Anglia Ruskin is exploring how to ensure effective communication between the population in Essex and Essex Police, £10,000
  • Unilever (2014), project investigating links between tactile and visual perception, £15,000
  • Energy Saving Trust (2012, led by Suffolk County Council), air source heat pumps were installed in a number of social housing properties in Suffolk. Our team monitored the energy consumption of the houses and led on tenant engagement to increase awareness and encourage pro-environmentally based behaviours. Total amount awarded is £130,000 of which £37,000 has been specifically allocated to Dr Jansson-Boyd's research
  • Skanska (2011), the Scandinavian construction company built a residential development in Cambridge, close to Trumpington and Addenbrooke's Hospital. The team investigated how to make house buyers perceive environmentally friendly sales related messages in a positive light. The research made use of previously established psychological findings such as different types of framing techniques in order to get consumer more interested in environmentally friendly houses, £48,000
  • European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (2011, SmartLife project led by Cambridgeshire County Council), of England's 22.7 million households, four million are social housing. This project monitored a set of flats in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, as they were fitted with air source heat pumps and solar PV panels, to reduce energy usage from the grid. It worked on the tenant engagement to encourage residents to reduce their energy consumption by using a number of different psychology-based methods. Total amount awarded is £800,000 of which £85,000 was allocated to Dr Jansson-Boyd’s research
  • American Psychological Association (2011), convention attendance travel supplement award, US$400
  • ARU Faculty Research Assistant grant (2011), funding to investigate the link between tactile childhood experiences and need for touch in adulthood, £2,600
  • ARU Undergraduate Research Taster Placements Scheme (2010), funding to research whether consumers are aware of product design intent and whether it affects decision making, £2,900
  • American Psychological Association (2007), convention attendance registration fee award, US$330
Selected recent publications

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., Bright, P. (forthcoming) (Eds.) Consumer Neuroscience (USA: Elsevier).

Jansson-Boyd, C., Zawisza, M. (eds.), 2016. The Routledge International Handbook of Consumer Psychology (London: Taylor & Francis).

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., Cloherty, R., 2014. Using Self-Awareness as a Means to Reduce Energy Consumption. In Proceedings of the 4th World Sustain. Forum, 1-30 November 2014; Sciforum Electronic Conference Series, Vol. 4, 2014.

Cloherty, R., Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2014. Transactional Analysis: A way to understanding and combating overconsumption. The Non-Significant Journal of Business and Consumer Psychology, 3.

Robison, R., Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2013. Seeing things differently: reframing the challenges of energy efficiency measure uptake as potential motivators,Sustainability, 5, pp. 5249-5271.

Jansson-Boyd, C.V., Raeva-Beri, D., Marlow, N., 2012. Tactile Marketing: Friend or foe? The Non-Significant Journal of Business and Consumer Psychology, 2, pp. 100-119.

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2012. Touch Matters: Exploring the relationship between consumption and tactile interaction. Social Semiotics, 21, pp.531-546.

Aruk, N., Jansson-Boyd, C. V., Crilly, N., 2011. What users know about the design process: a report on two exploratory studies. Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces, Milan, Italy. Abstract in press.

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2011. Consumption Matters: A psychological perspective (Basingstoke: Palgrave).

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2011. Designing aesthetic concepts: Can it be done? Psychology, Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, 5, pp. 279-290.

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2011. The role of touch in marketing: An introduction to the special issue. Psychology & Marketing, 28, pp. 219-221.

Marlow, N., Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2011. To touch or not to touch; that is the question. Should consumers always be encouraged to touch products, and does it always alter product perception? Psychology & Marketing, 28, pp. 256-266.

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2010. Consumer Psychology (Maidenhead: Open University Press). A Korean translation of this book has been produced.

Recent presentations and conferences

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., Cloherty, R., 2014. Using Self-Awareness as a Means to Reduce Energy Consumption. The 4th World Sustainability Forum.

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2014. Factors that affect Autotelic and Instrumental need for touch. Invited speaker at a symposium titled: The Relationship between Touch Perception and Socioemotional Processes, 26th Annual Convention for the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco.

Cloherty, R., Jansson-Boyd, C. V., Jiminez- Bescos, C., 2014. Helping people to help themselves: Encouraging people to reduce their energy consumption. Poster presented at the International Congress of Applied Psychology, Paris.

Dlugokencka, A., Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2014. Self-esteem and Materialistic Value Orientation as Predictors of Compulsive Buying in British and Polish people. Poster presented at the International Congress of Applied Psychology, Paris.

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2013. Visual design: It is more to it than meets the eye. VIVID (Value Increase by Visual Design): Increase Growth by Visual Design International Conference, Cambridge, UK,

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., Taylor-Whiffen, E., 2013. Factors That Influence Consumers’ Need for Touch. Paper presented at the 121st annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Society for Consumer Psychology Division, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., Robison, R., 2013. Changing Lives, Changing Priorities: Teaching People to Use Less Energy, Poster presented at the 121st annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Environmental, Population and Conservation Psychology Division, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., Robison, R., 2013. Is It Possible to Encourage 'Vulnerable' Housing Tenants to Reduce Their Energy Consumption? Paper to be presented at the European Congress of Psychology, Stockholm, Sweden

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., Taylor-Whiffen, E., 2013. Explaining Why People Differ in Their 'Need for Touch': an Investigation into Early Years and Recent Tactile Experiences, Paper presented at the European Congress of Psychology, Stockholm Sweden.

Aruk, N., Jansson-Boyd, C. V., Crilly, N., 2011. What users know about the design process: a report on two exploratory studies. Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces, Milan, Italy.

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2011. The role of touch in product design. Paper presented at the 119th annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Society for Consumer Psychology division, Washington, USA.

Aruk, N., Jansson-Boyd, C. V., Crilly, N., 2011. Are consumers aware of the product design intent? An exploratory investigation. Paper presented at the 119th annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Society for Consumer Psychology division, Washington, USA.

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2010. Making touch count: when do consumers evaluate tactile product features? Paper presented at the 27th International Congress of Applied Psychology, Melbourne, Australia.

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2010. Capitalising on pleasure: A way to increase condom use. Symposia organised by NeuroSci on behalf of SSL International/Reckitt Benckiser.

Spiers, R., Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2010. Materialism: Friend or foe? The link between materialism, subjective-well being and friendship. Electronic poster presented at the 27th International Congress of Applied Psychology, Melbourne, Australia.

Bloomfield, S., Jansson-Boyd, C. V., 2010. Do the media contribute to whether British teenagers feel confident? Electronic poster presented at the 27th International Congress of Applied Psychology, Melbourne, Australia.

Media experience