Matt Johnson, PhD is a neuroscientist, speaker, and writer specializing in the application of psychology to marketing
Matt Johnson, PhD is a speaker, writer, and researcher, specializing in the application of psychology and neuroscience to branding. Following his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Princeton University, his work has probed the science of brand storytelling, experiential marketing, and consumer decision-making. He is the author of the top-selling consumer psychology book, Blindsight: The (mostly) hidden ways marketing reshapes our brains (BenBella, 2020), and most recently, Branding That Means Business (Economist Books, Fall 2022). In 2023, he was inducted into Thinkers50 Radar as one of 30 business thinkers with ideas most likely to shape the future.
As a columnist for Psychology Today, and a contributor to major news outlets including Forbes, Business Insider and BBC, he regularly provides expert opinion and thought leadership on a range of topics related to the human side of business. Matt is also passionate about helping brands harness insights from neuroscience to better understand, serve, and interact with their consumers. To this end, he consults with a wide array of organizations, including as an expert in residence for Nike. Matt currently resides in Boston, MA, where he is a Professor of Psychology and Marketing at Hult International Business School, and an instructor at Harvard University’s Division of Professional and Executive Development. He has won several teaching awards, and is recognized by Poets & Quants as one of the 50 top business school professors.
Outside of formal classroom teaching, Matt works with a variety of marketing practitioners, enabling them to apply psychology and neuroscience in various aspects of their work. He regularly hosts specialized workshops and webinars, and has collaborated with LinkedIn Learning to create two specialized courses on consumer neuroscience.
Matt grew up in The Bay Area, California, and has lived and worked in San Diego, New Jersey, Berlin and Shanghai.
AS SEEN IN..
Writing & Media
As an author, Matt is honored to be represented by Lisa Gallagher of DeFiore Agency, who also represents Neil Gaiman ("American Gods"), Steven Levitt ("Freakonomics"), Molly Bloom ("Molly's Game," now transformed into an Aaron Sorkin film), and numerous others.
Beyond his books, Matt is an avid writer of shorter-form pieces. He is the host of the human nature blog, which explores a range of topics related to psychology, philosophy, and society, and the neuroscience of marketing, centered on the intersection between neuroscience and consumerism.
Matt is passionate about making complex ideas accessible to a broad public audience. To this end, he is also the host of the Mind, Brain, and Value column on Psychology Today, which enjoyed by over 650,000 readers. Matt’s writing can also be found in The European Business Review, World Financial Review, Behavioral Economics, and Harvard Business Review. He is a regular guest on podcasts, television broadcasts, and in media interviews - for bookings and media, please reach out here.
Speaking and Workshops
Matt is an experienced TEDx and international keynote speaker specializing in neuroscience, branding, and consumer psychology. Matt regularly delivers talks, workshops, seminars, and speeches to groups ranging from small gatherings of executives, to marketing summits, to large public conferences broadcast on national media. He has also filmed several on-demand webinars and online courses, including two courses with Linkedin Learning.
Research
Matt’s research helps to address the underlying mechanisms that shape consumer psychology. He’s particularly interested in the hidden connections between marketing, consumerism and behavior, and how the activity of brands shapes human experiences. Marketing, when done right, can drive purchasing behavior. But what else can it do, both for good and for ill? How does marketing tap into our more general perceptual, cognitive, and social capacities?
To this end, he utilizes a range of methodologies, from neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI and EEG, to behavioral studies, to more theoretical approaches.
He’s also drawn to questions about the broader connections between marketing and society. How does consumerism interact with the culture at large, and with the changing technologies landscape? Can brands play a role in creating social norms and driving meaningful societal change? And if so, should they?
Recent research
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PHYGITAL MARKETING THROUGH THE LENS OF NEUROSCIENCE AND PHENOMENOLOGY: AN INTERPRETIVIST ACCOUNT (2024) Phygital marketing is distinguished by its focus on the quality of subjective first-personal consumer experiences, but few papers to date have explored how neuroscience can be used as a tool for exploring these inner landscapes. This paper addresses this lacuna by providing a novel perspective on "interpretivist neuroscience", and proposes ways that current neuroscientific models can be utilized as a practical methodology for addressing these questions. It clarifies interpretivist approaches to consumer neuroscience, wherein theoretical models of individual phenomenology can be combined with modern neuroimaging techniques to detect and interpret the first-person accounts of phygital experiences. We argue here that studying phygital experiences through neurophenomenology can yield insights not otherwise possible.
Johnson, M. and Barlow, R. (2024), Phygital Marketing Through the Lens of Neuroscience and Phenomenology: An Interpretivist Account, Journal of Qualitative Market Research
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ART AND THE MARKETING OF LUXURY FASHION: CAN A RENEWED BRAND PURPOSE BENEFIT THE ART WORLD? (2023) There’s a natural tension between art, and the incentives of commercialization. This conflict is especially pronounced in the world of luxury fashion. In seeking to resolve this tension, we argue that luxury brands ought to conceive of their artistic involvement through the lens of "brand purpose". If luxury fashion brands are to shape their brand purpose around a commitment to artistic creation and fostering a vital art world that provides the individual and social goods we have discussed, they will need to adopt a clear set of values representing their core identity. This paper proposes three: expanding access to create, view, and experience art; fostering creativity by providing respite from the immediate demands of the art market; and supplying inspiration to influence the public conversation about important social issues through art.
Johnson, M., and Barlow, R. (In Review, 2023) Art and The Marketing of Luxury Fashion: Can a Renewed Brand Purpose Benefit The Art World?
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THE ELEVATION OF LUXURY? EXPLORING THE COMMERCIAL USE OF ART AS A VEHICLE FOR SHARED VALUE (2022) Luxury brands are market-driving forces, and have the ability to be shape consumer preferences. Because of this taste-maker status, luxury brands also play an outsized role in aesthetic standards, and significantly influence the role of art in society. Here, we argue that luxury brands can harness these qualities to create shared value through art infusion and artification. And by doing so, can have an outsized impact on artistic norms and the degree to which they impact consumer psychology
Johnson, M., and Barlow, R. (2022) The Elevation of Luxury: Art Infusion and Artification as Vehicles for Creating Shared Value, Journal of Business Ethics, Academy of Management Annual Conference Proceedings
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DEFINING THE PHYGITAL ADVANTAGE: APPLYING CONSUMER NEUROSCIENCE TO DIGITAL AND PHYSICAL RETAIL (2021) We bring together findings from consumer psychology, experiential marketing, and theoretical neuroscience to provide a mechanistic account for the advantages of phygital retail experiences. In particular, we explain this in terms of two complementary features: reduced “pain of payment”, as facilitated by digital purchasing technologies, and increased psychological attachment, as generated by real or simulated product experiences prior to purchase
Johnson, M., & Barlow, R. (2021). Defining the Phygital Marketing Advantage. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, 16(6), 2365-2385.
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PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING DESIGN THINKING’S IMPACT ON GUSTATORY PERCEPTION (2021) Design thinking impacts not only the development of new cuisines and culinary experiences, but also the raw perception of food itself. In this chapter, we review current practices in design thinking approaches, and provide an account for the psychological mechanisms by which this occurs, with an emphasis on unconscious mental modeling, empathy, and storytelling
Johnson, M., Barlow, R., & Ghuman, P. (2021). Psychological Mechanisms Underlying Design Thinking’s Impact on Gustatory Perception: Implications for Food Experiences and Well-Being. In Design Thinking for Food Well-Being (pp. 83-98). Springer
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MODERN MAD MEN: MARKETING ETHICS AND THE NEUROSCIENCE OF CONSUMER AUTONOMY (2021) Modern marketing is unprecedented in its ability to shape consumer behavior, which neccessitates novel approaches to understanding it’s ethical standing. Here we draw on consumer neuroscience to develop this framework and diagnostic criteria. The argument centers on consumer autonomy, which we argue has been significantly overlooked to date. Then, drawing on decades of behavioral economics, consumer psychology, and cognitive neuroscience research, we advance a theoretical understanding of how it is diminished by modern marketing tactics, and of how such violations may be judged. Finally, we consider the implications of our analysis for regulatory practices, consumer behavior, and consumerism at large.
Barlow, R., & Johnson, M. (2021). Modern Mad Men: Marketing Ethics and the Neuroscience of Consumer Autonomy. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2021, No. 1, p. 10056). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.
