Bio

Elizabeth Cowley has an MBA in Marketing and Management Information Systems from McGill University in Montreal. After graduating, Elizabeth worked for several years in the Marketing and Marketing Planning departments of the largest integrated oil company in Canada. Her doctorate was completed under the supervision of Andrew Mitchell from the University of Toronto where she studied under some of the world's leading memory researchers. Her research interests are consumer memory and decision making. Elizabeth's memory research focuses on how the organisation of memory affects the retrieval of brand information and the conditions under which memory is distorted during retrieval. Her research of memory distortion is not limited to memory for facts, but also memory for affective reactions to consumption experiences, an important input for future choice. She has also investigated the role that retrieval confidence plays in choice.

Elizabeth's research is published in the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Consumer Psychology, the International Journal of Research in Marketing, the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of Advertising, and the Journal of Business Research.

Editorial Review Board Membership

International Journal of Research in Marketing
Journal of Consumer Research
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
Recherche et Applications en Marketing

Newsroom articles

• Why customers get satisfaction out of deceiving retailers 19 Sep 2012

  NBC News

  Business School professors Christina Anthony and Elizabeth Cowley found that consumers who tell lies over the course of a customer-service encounter experience higher satisfaction if they get what they want than people who obtain a favorable outcome by telling the truth.

• Week in Ideas: The Business of Lying 13 Apr 2012

  Wall Street Journal

  The Wall Street Journal has reported on the research conducted by Dr Christina Anthony and Professor Elizabeth Cowley, Discipline of Marketing at the University of Sydney Business School, which suggests that consumers feel more satisfied if they lie and get what they want than if they tell the truth.

• How Dishonesty Can Be Good for Consumers 03 Apr 2012

  The Atlantic

  The Atlantic has reported on the results of research conducted by Dr Christina Anthony and Professor Elizabeth Cowley, Discipline of Marketing at the University of Sydney Business School, which suggests that consumers feel more satisfied if they lie and get what they want than if they tell the truth.

• Lying can bring more satisfaction 25 Mar 2012

  Asian Age

  No doubt, honesty pays. But lying brings more satisfaction, researchers have claimed.

• Angry customers more likely to be lying 23 Mar 2012

  Marketing Magazine

  Research conducted by Dr Christina Anthony and Professor Elizabeth Cowley, Discipline of Marketing at the University of Sydney Business School, suggests that consumers feel more satisfied if they lie and get what they want than if they tell the truth.

See all Newsroom items for Elizabeth Cowley

Publications

2018

Book Section/s

Anthony CI and Cowley E 2018 Forthcoming 'The Lies Consumers Tell: The Opportunities and Challenges of Studying Consumer Deception' in The Routledge Companion to Consumer Behavior, ed. M.R. Solomon and T.M. Lowey, Routledge, United Kingdom

2016

Journal Article/s

Fernandes D, Puntoni S, van Osselaer SMJ and Cowley E 2016 'When and Why We Forget to Buy', Journal of Consumer Psychology, vol.26:3, pp. 363-80

Blaszczynski A, Cowley E, Anthony CI and Hinsley K 2016 'Breaks in Play: Do they achieve intended aims?', Journal of Gambling Studies, vol.32:2, pp. 789-800

Conference Paper/s

Cowley E and Anthony CI 2016 'Deception Memory', Association for Consumer Research North American Conference, Berlin, Germany, 30th October 2016

2015

Journal Article/s

Cowley E, Briley D and Farrell C 2015 'How do gamblers maintain an illusion of control?', Journal of Business Research, vol.68:10, pp. 2181-88

Conference Paper/s

Anthony CI, Cowley E and Duhachek A 2015 'Righting a Wrong: Apology Gifts and the Pursuit of Forgiveness', The La Londe Conference in Marketing Communications and Consumer Behavior, La Londe les Maures, France, 5th June 2015

Cowley E and Anthony CI 2015 'When Do Consumers Believe Salespeople: The Role of Sinister Attributions in the Perception of Deception', 44th Annual European Marketing Academy Conference – “Collaboration in Research”, Leuven, Belgium, 29th May 2015

2014

Journal Article/s

Cowley E 2014 'Consumers Telling Consumption Stories: Word-of-Mouth and Retrospective Evaluations', Journal of Business Research (Special Section: Utterly Fresh Perspectives On Consumer Research And Advertising), vol.67:7, pp. 1522-29

Conference Paper/s

Cowley E and Anthony CI 2014 'Saying a Little, Saying a Lot: Response Lenght as a Deception Cue for Consumers', Association for Consumer Research North American Conference, Baltimore, United States, 26th October 2014

Tessitore T, Geuens M, Pandelaere M and Cowley E 2014 'Suspicion is a Heavy Armor! A Mindset Account for the Carryover Effects of Suspicion on Unrelated Persuasion Attempts', 43rd Annual European Marketing Academy Conference EMAC 2014 - "Paradigm shifts & Interactions", Valencia, Spain, 6th June 2014

Tessitore T, Geuens M, Pandelaere M and Cowley E 2014 'Mind Suspicious Minds! A Mindset Account for the Carryover Effects of Suspicion on Unrelated Information Processing', Society for Consumer Psychology Winter Conference, Miami, United States, 8th March 2014

Zlatevska N and Cowley E 2014 'Failing to not think about Failing: Why thought suppression depletes regulatory resources', 15th Annual Meeting of The Society for Personality and Social Psychology SPSP, Austin, United States, 15th February 2014

2013

Journal Article/s

Cowley E 2013 'Forgetting the Anxiety: Gamblers’ Reactions to Outcome Uncertainty', Journal of Business Research, vol.66:9, pp. 1591-7

Conference Paper/s

Anthony CI, Cowley E and Duhachek A 2013 'Forgive by Remembering or Forgive by Forgetting: The Temporal Match Between Victim Motivation and Apology Gift Preferences', Special Session at Association for Consumer Research Annual North American Conference ACR 2013 - "Making A Difference", Chicago, United States, 6th October 2013

Cowley E 2013 'Consumers Telling Consumption Stories: Word-Of-Mouth and Retrospective Evaluations', 40th International Research Conference in Marketing - “Marketing Communications and Consumer Behavior”, La Londe les Maures, France, 31st May 2013

Anthony CI, Cowley E and Duhachek A 2013 'Forgive or Forget: How Victim Motivation Following An Interpersonal Transgression Affects Apology Gift Preferences', Society for Consumer Psychology Annual Winter Conference SCP 2013, San Antonio, United States, 2nd March 2013

2012

Book Section/s

Cowley E 2012 'As a Backdrop, Part of the Plot, or a Goal in a Game: The Ubiquitous Product Placement' in The Psychology of Entertainment Media: Blurring the Lines Between Entertainment and Persuasion (2nd Edition), ed. L .J. Shrum, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, New York, United States, pp. 37-63

Journal Article/s

Anthony CI and Cowley E 2012 'The Labor of Lies: How Lying for Material Rewards Polarizes Consumers' Outcome Satisfaction', Journal of Consumer Research, vol.39:3, pp. 478-92

Cowley E and Czellar S 2012 'The Moderating Role of Self-Monitoring on the Interpersonal Aspects of Attitude Ambivalence', Journal of Personality, vol.80:4, pp. 949-68

Conference Paper/s

Zlatevska N and Cowley E 2012 'To Think or Not to Think: The Pros and Cons of Thought Suppression', Association for Consumer Research Conference ACR 2012 - “Appreciating Diversity”, Vancouver, Canada, 7th October 2012

Fernandes D, Puntoni S, van Osselaer S and Cowley E 2012 'Of Optimists and Shopping Lists: The Dissociation between Consumers’ Memory Metacognition and Memory Performance (Poster Presentation)', Behavioral Decision Research in Management Conference BDRM 2012, Bolder, United States, 29th June 2012

Anthony CI and Cowley E 2012 'Promoting A Brighter Future: The Energizing Role of Downward Counterfactual Thinking', 13th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology SPSP 2012, San Diego, United States, 28th January 2012

Conference Proceeding/s

Cowley E, Anthony CI and Duhachek A 2012 'Saying Sorry: Exploring the Temporal Match between Forgiveness Motivations and Apology Gift Types', Proceedings of the 41st Annual European Marketing Academy EMAC Conference 2012 – “Marketing to Citizens: Going beyond Customers and Consumers", Lisbon, Portugal, 25th May 2012

Zlatevska N and Cowley E 2012 'Failing To Not Think About Failing: The Effects of Thought Suppression on Consumption', Proceedings of the 41st Annual European Marketing Academy EMAC Conference 2012 – “Marketing to Citizens: Going beyond Customers and Consumers", Lisbon, Portugal, 25th May 2012

2011

Book Section/s

Noor SM, Styles C and Cowley E 2011 'Brand Equity: Linking Financial and Customer Perspectives' in Perspectives on Brand Management, ed. Mark D Uncles, Tilde University Press, Prahran, Australia, pp. 22-39

Conference Paper/s

Anthony CI and Cowley E 2011 'For Better, For Worse: Using Downward Counterfactual Thoughts to Motivate Future Behavior', Society for Consumer Psychology Annual Winter Conference SCP 2011, Atlanta Georgia, United States, 26th February 2011

Conference Proceeding/s

Noor SM, Cowley E and Styles C 2011 'The Role of ‘Who Am I?’ in What I Buy: Self Concept and Brand Equity', Proceedings of the 40th European Marketing Academy EMAC Conference 2011 - "The Day After – Inspiration, Innovation, Implementation", Ljubljana, Slovenia, 27th May 2011

Cowley E and McNally S 2011 'Over the Radar: Disconfirmed Expectations and Consumers’ Susceptibility to Advertising Misinformation Effects', Proceedings of the 40th European Marketing Academy EMAC Conference 2011 - "The Day After – Inspiration, Innovation, Implementation", Ljubljana, Slovenia, 27th May 2011

2010

Conference Paper/s

Anthony CI, Cowley E and Pandelaere M 2010 'Hiding Guilt', Association for Consumer Research Annual North American Conference ACR 2010 - "Think BIG. Big Ideas. Big Findings", Jacksonville, United States, 10th October 2010

Conference Proceeding/s

Anthony CI and Cowley E 2010 'Re-lying on Lying', Proceedings of the 39th European Marketing Academy Conference EMAC 2010 - “The Six Senses - The Essentials of Marketing”, Copenhagen, Denmark, 4th June 2010

Cowley E and Anthony CI 2010 'Daydreaming: Basing Risky Decisions On What Didn’t Happen', Proceedings of the 39th European Marketing Academy Conference EMAC 2010 - “The Six Senses - The Essentials of Marketing”, Copenhagen , Denmark, 4th June 2010

Cowley E and Anthony CI 2010 'Using a rear view mirror as a crystal ball: The informational value of trends in hedonic profiles', Society for Consumer Psychology Annual Winter Conference 2010, St Pete Beach Florida, United States, 27th February 2010

2009

Conference Paper/s

Anthony CI and Cowley E 2009 'Lying Your Way Out Of A Bad Situation', Association for Consumer Research Annual North American Conference 2009 - "A World of Knowledge At the Point of Confluence", Pittsburgh, United States, 25th October 2009

Anthony CI and Cowley E 2009 'Chasing Rainbows: Strategies For Promoting Future Better Outcomes', Association for Consumer Research Annual North American Conference 2009 - "A World of Knowledge At the Point of Confluence", Pittsburgh, United States, 25th October 2009

Cowley E 2009 'Anticipating Anticipatory Emotions', 2009 Society for Consumer Psychology Conference, San Diego, United States, 14th February 2009

Anthony CI and Cowley E 2009 'Prepairing and Repairing: Using Mixed Counterfactual Thoughts', Society for Consumer Psychology Annual 2009 Winter Conference, San Diego, United States, 14th February 2009

Conference Proceeding/s

Cowley E and Anthony CI 2009 'Being Cautious or Throwing Caution to the Wind', 38th European Marketing Academy Conference EMAC 2009 - Marketing & the Core Disciplines: Rediscovering references?, Nantes, France, 29th May 2009

2008

Journal Article/s

Cowley E 2008 'Looking Back at an Experience through Rose-Colored Glasses', Journal of Business Research, vol.61:10, pp. 1046-52

Cowley E and Barron C 2008 'When Product Placement Goes Wrong: The Effects of Program Liking and Placement Prominence', Journal of Advertising, vol.37:1 (Spring 2008), pp. 89-98

Cowley E 2008 'The Perils of Hedonic Editing', Journal of Consumer Research, vol.35:1, pp. 71-84

Conference Paper/s

Anthony CI and Cowley E 2008 'The Glass Is Both Half Full And Half Empty: The Strategic Use Of Mixed Counterfactual Thoughts', Association for Consumer Research Annual North American Conference 2008, San Francisco, United States, 26th October 2008

Conference Proceeding/s

Cowley E 2008 'Telling Stories: Word-of-mouth and retospective evaluations', 37th European Marketing Academy Conference EMAC 2008 - Marketing Landscapes: A Pause for Thought, Brighton, United Kingdom, 30th May 2008

Cowley E, Briley D and Farrell C 2008 'Under Control: Using Memory to Maintain an Illusion of Control', 37th European Marketing Academy Conference EMAC 2008 - Marketing Landscapes: A Pause for Thought, Brighton, United Kingdom, 30th May 2008

Laurent G, Cowley E and Czellar S 2008 'The Moderating Role of Self-Monitoring on the Antecedents of Ambivalent Attitudes', 37th European Marketing Academy Conference EMAC 2008 - Marketing Landscapes: A Pause for Thought, Brighton, United Kingdom, 30th May 2008

2007

Journal Article/s

Cowley E 2007 'How Enjoyable Was It? Remembering an Affective Reaction to a Previous Consumption Experience', Journal of Consumer Research, vol.34:4, pp. 494-505

Conference Paper/s

Anthony CI and Cowley E 2007 'It is not Whether You Win or Lose, But How You Play the Game: The Role of Memory in How Consumers Feel After Lying', Advances in Consumer Research, United States, 1st January 2007-31st December 2007

Conference Proceeding/s

Cowley E 2007 'Is change good? We think so beforehand, but not after', 36th European Marketing Academy (EMAC) Annual Conference 2007, Reykjavik, Iceland, 25th May 2007

Czeller S, Cowley E and Laurent G 2007 'Experiencing Mixed Feelings About Consumption: Self-Monitoring and the Antecedents of Attitude Ambivalence', 36th European Marketing Academy (EMAC) Annual Conference 2007, Reykjavik, Iceland, 25th May 2007

Cowley E 2007 'Consumers generating their own misinformation: How passing on work-of mouth affects autobiographical memory', The Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP) Winter Conference, Las Vegas, United States, 25th February 2007

2006

Journal Article/s

Cowley E 2006 'Remembering the impressions of others as our own: How post-experience decisions can distort autobiographical memory', Applied Cognitive Psychology, vol.20:2, pp. 227-238

Cowley E 2006 'Processing exaggerated advertising claims', Journal of Business Research, vol.59:6, pp. 728-734

Patterson P, Cowley E and Prasongsukarn K 2006 'Service failure recovery: The moderating impact of individual-level cultural value orientation on perceptions of justice', International Journal of Research in Marketing, vol.23:3, pp. 263-277

Conference Paper/s

Cowley E 2006 'Retrospective evaluations: Will chance versus luck oriented individuals select different moments of an experience?', Advances in Consumer Research, San Antonio, United States, 1st January 2006-31st December 2006

Conference Proceeding/s

Cowley E, Farrell C and Edwardson M 2006 'A new classification of uncertainty orientation: Exploring the susceptibility to the hindsight bias in a gambling context', Advances in Consumer Research, 1st January 2006-31st December 2006

Colin F, Cowley E and Edwardson M 2006 'Strategies to improve the probability of winning a lottery: Gamblers and their illusions of control', European Advances in Consumer Research, Goteborg, Sweden, 18th June 2006

Cowley E 2006 'The problem with positive thinking', 35th European Marketing Academy Conference (EMAC), Athens, Greece, 26th May 2006

Cowley E 2006 'I bought it, I must have liked it: The construction of an affective reaction to a past experience', 35th European Marketing Academy Conference (EMAC), Athens, Greece, 26th May 2006

2005

Journal Article/s

Cowley E and Rossiter JR 2005 'Range Model of Judgments', Journal of Consumer Psychology, vol.15:3, pp. 250-62

Cowley E and Rossiter JR 2005 'The role of affective expectations in the memory for a service encounter', Journal of Business Research, vol.15:3, pp. 250-62

Cowley E 2005 'Views from consumers next in line: The fundamental attribution error in a service setting', Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol.33:2, pp. 139-152

Conference Paper/s

Cowley E 2005 'Reconstructing memory for evaluations: The role of past feelings, past behavior and post-experience information', European Advances in Consumer Research, Goteborg, Sweden, 18th June 2005

Conference Proceeding/s

Cowley E 2005 'What do novices remember?', Association for Consumer Research Annual Conference, Portland Oregon, United States, 10th October 2005

Cowley E 2005 'Knowing the claim is not very credible, but believing it anyway: Processing exaggerated advertising claims', Rejuvenating Marketing: contamination, innovation, integration - 34th European Marketing Academy (EMAC) Conference, Milan , Italy, 27th May 2005

Seminar Paper/s

Cowley E 2005 'Knowing the claim is not very credible, but using it anyway: Processing exaggerated advertising claims, 6th International Research Seminar on Marketing Communications and Consumer Behavior, La Londe, France, 27 May 2005

2004

Journal Article/s

Cowley E 2004 'Not necessarily better, but certainly different: A limit to the advertising misinformation effect', Journal of Consumer Research, vol.31:1, pp. 229-235

Cowley E 2004 'Recognition confidence, recognition accuracy and choice', Journal of Business Research, vol.57:6, pp. 641-646

Conference Paper/s

Cowley E and Barron C 2004 'The role of programme liking in effective product placement', 33rd European Marketing Academy (EMAC) Conference, Murcia, Spain, 21st May 2004

Conference Proceeding/s

Cowley E 2004 'How the opinions of others affect memory for consumption experiences', European Advances in Consumer Research, 1st January 2004-31st December 2004

Cowley E, Farrell C and Edwardson M 2004 'Affective expectation and uncertainty orientation: When do affective expectations stop affecting affective reactions?', Advances in Consumer Research, 1st January 2004-31st December 2004

2003

Journal Article/s

Cowley E and Mitchell A 2003 'The moderating effect of product knowledge on the learning and organization of product information', Journal of Consumer Research, vol.30:3, pp. 443-455

Spurr R, Cowley E, Robins P and Woodside A 2003 'Domestic leisure traveller purchase and consumption systems: Theory and an empirical study of Australian domestic overnight travellers', Tourism Analysis, vol.8:2, pp. 149-152

Conference Proceeding/s

Cowley E 2003 'How the opinions of others affect memory for consumption experiences', European Advances in Consumer Research, Provo, United States, 1st January 2003-31st December 2003

2002

Journal Article/s

Cowley E 2002 'East-west consumer confidence and accuracy in memory for product information', Journal of Business Research, vol.55:11, pp. 915-921

Conference Proceeding/s

Cowley E 2002 'The fundamental attribution error: Social inference of service outcomes', Advances in Consumer Research, 1st January 2002-31st December 2002

2001

Journal Article/s

Cowley E 2001 'Overconfidence in memory for brand information: A cross-national study', Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, vol.13:2, pp. 85-96

Cowley E and Caldwell M 2001 'Truth, Lies and Videotape: The Impact of Personality on the Memory for a Consumption Experience (Film)', Advances in Consumer Research, pp. 20-25

1995

Journal Article/s

Law S and Cowley E 1995 'Do you 'remember' or do you 'know': Does it matter?', Canadian Journal of Marketing Research, vol.14, pp. 34-99

Selected grants