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Nick Light

Assistant Professor of Marketing

Affiliations: Marketing, Center for Sustainable Business Practices
nlight@uoregon.edu
Office: Lillis 476
Website

About

Biography:

Nick Light is an assistant professor of marketing at the Lundquist College of Business. He conducts multi-method research on consumers' perceptions of simplicity and complexity, the public's understanding of science, knowledge, information, and uncertainty. He is also interested in the history and philosophy of science.

Before his doctoral studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, Light spent nearly a decade in New York City, New York in various in-house and agency-side marketing communications and brand strategy roles (Casper, Ernst & Young, Whirlpool, MINI USA, and others). He holds a BA from the University of Vermont and an MA from the University of Chicago.

Professional Leadership:
  • Associate, Center for Science Communication Research (SCR)

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Areas of Expertise

  • Anti-scientific attitudes
  • Consumer cognition
  • Knowledge and understanding
  • Marketing communications

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Publications

Journal Articles:

Light, Nicholas, and Philip M. Fernbach. "Keep It Simple? Consumer Perceptions of Brand Simplicity and Risk." Journal of Marketing Research 62, no. 6: 1152-1170. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022243724124841.

December 2024

Carter, Erin Percival, Lawrence E. Williams, and Nicholas Light. "Consumers' Minimum Time Investments in Meaningful Consumption." Marketing Letters 35, no. 4: 561-573 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-023-09709-z.

December 2024

Light, Nicholas, Phillip M. Fernbach, Nathaniel Rabb, Mugur V. Geana, and Steven A. Sloman. "Knowledge Overconfidence is Associated with Anti-Consensus Views on Controversial Scientific Issues." Science Advances 8, no. 29: 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abo0038.

July 2022

Pomerance, Justin, Nicholas Light, and Lawrence E. Williams. "In These Uncertain Times: Fake News Amplifies the Desires to Save and Spend in Response to COVID-19." Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 7, no. 1: 45-53. https://doi.org/10.1086/711836.

January 2022

Fernbach, Philip M., and Nicholas Light. "Knowledge is Shared." Psychological Inquiry 31, no. 1: 26-28. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2020.1722601.

March 2020

Fernbach, Philip M., Nicholas Light, Sydney E. Scott, Yoel Inbar, and Paul Rozin. "Extreme Opponents of Genetically Modified Foods Know the Least but Think They Know the Most." Nature Human Behaviour 3, no. 3: 251-256. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0520-3.

March 2019
Book Chapters:

Light, Nicholas, and Philip Fernbach. "The Role of Knowledge Calibration in Intellectual Humility." In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Humility, edited by Mark Alfano, Michael P. Lynch, and Alessandra Tanesini, 411-424. London, UK: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351107532.

July 2020

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In the News

Illustration showing a old-style blender exploding as it mixes with bananas next to it and the text "It's so simple" to the right of it on a parchment paper textured background
Marketing a Brand’s Simplicity Can Backfire
When companies tout the simplicity of their products, they may unknowingly invite customer dissatisfaction, new University of Oregon research finds.

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