Portrait of Freeman Wu

Freeman Wu

Assistant Professor of Marketing
Affiliations: Marketing
freemanw@uoregon.edu
Office: Lillis 477
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About

Biography:

Freeman Wu is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Oregon's Lundquist College of Business. His research focuses on consumer behavior, with particular emphasis on aesthetics and design, social signaling and influence, and consumer-technology interactions. Across these distinct research domains, he examines how consumers extract meaning from incidental marketplace cues, ranging from product aesthetics to social media features, and how these inferences shape behavior and marketplace outcomes.

Wu's research has appeared in leading journals, including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Harvard Business Review. He currently serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, reflecting extensive engagement with the field's top outlets.

He completed his PhD at Arizona State University in 2018 and was previously a faculty member at Vanderbilt University.

Degree History:
  • PhD, Marketing, Arizona State University, 2018
  • MS, Marketing, Arizona State University, 2014
  • BSc, Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2011
Previous Positions:
  • Assistant Professor of Marketing, Vanderbilt University, 2018–2025
Professional Leadership:
  • Editorial Review Board Member, Journal of Marketing
  • Editorial Review Board Member, Journal of Marketing Research
  • Editorial Review Board Member, Journal of Consumer Research
  • Editorial Review Board Member, Journal of Consumer Psychology
  • Editorial Review Board Member, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
  • Editorial Review Board Member, Journal of Interactive Marketing
Honors and Awards:
  • Faculty Representative, Haring Symposium, Indiana University, 2026
  • Faculty Participant, Association for Consumer Research Doctoral Symposium, 2019, 2025
  • Faculty Participant, Society for Consumer Psychology Doctoral Symposium, 2025
  • Early Career Consortium Travel Scholarship, American Marketing Association–Sheth Foundation, 2025
  • Early Career Consortium Fellow, American Marketing Association–Sheth Foundation, 2025
  • Finalist, American Marketing Association/Marketing Science Institute/H. Paul Root Award, 2024
  • Finalist, Shelby D. Hunt/Harold H. Maynard Award, 2024
  • Best Advanced Talk Award, American Marketing Association Consumer Behavior Special Interest Group Conference, 2024

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Areas of Expertise

  • Aesthetics and design
  • Consumer-technology interactions
  • Social influence
  • Social signaling

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Publications

Journal Articles:

Wu, Freeman, Geoffrey R. O. Durso, and Kelly L. Haws. "How to Lose Friends and Influence No One: The Documenting Penalty in Experiential Consumption." Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, forthcoming.

September 2025

Daniels, Michelle, and Freeman Wu. "Unwanted Social Media Comments? The Tricky Business of Managing Online Hostility in Influencer Marketing." NIM Marketing Intelligence Review 17, no. 1: 24–29. https://doi.org/10.2478/nimmir-2025-0004.

May 2025

Wu, Freeman, Adriana Samper, Andrea C. Morales, and Gavan J. Fitzsimons. "When Do Photos on Products Hurt or Help Consumption? How Magical Thinking Shapes Consumer Reactions to Photo-Integrated Products." Journal of Consumer Psychology 35, no. 2: 220–237. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1415.

April 2025

Daniels, Michelle E., and Freeman Wu. "No Comments (From You): Understanding the Interpersonal and Professional Consequences of Disabling Social Media Comments." Journal of Marketing 88, no. 6: 121–139. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429241252842.

November 2024

Wu, Freeman, Martin Reimann, Gratiana Pol, and C. W. Park. "The Scarcity of Beauty: How and Why Product Aesthetics Mobilize Consumer Acquisition Effort." Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 51, no. 6: 1245–1265. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-021-00831-w.

November 2023

Otterbring, Tobias, Freeman Wu, and Per Kristensson. "Too Close for Comfort? Examining the Impact of Salesperson-Customer Proximity on Consumers' Purchase Behavior." Psychology & Marketing 38, no. 9: 1576–90. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21519.

September 2021

Wu, Freeman, Kevin L. Sample, and Kelly L. Haws. "The Messy Satiation Effect: Understanding How Eating Messily Can Accelerate the Rate of Satiation and Reduce Consumption." Appetite 159: 105057. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.105057.

April 2021

Wu, Freeman, Adriana Samper, Andrea C. Morales, and Gavan J. Fitzsimons. "It's Too Pretty to Use! When and How Enhanced Product Aesthetics Discourage Usage and Lower Consumption Enjoyment." Journal of Consumer Research 44, no. 3: 651–672. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucx057.

October 2017
Other Publications:

Wu, Freeman, and Michelle Daniels. "What Happens When Influencers Turn Off Comments." Harvard Business Review.

August 2024

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In the News

The text -UO Business News Mar/Apr 2026-
UO Business News | March/April 2026
Olympic moments, rethinking the ballet pointe shoe, new alumni ambassadors, and more...
The silhouette of a person's arm and hand holding up a phone to film is seen against the bright lights of a concert on a stage
The Social Cost of Documenting Shared Experiences
Research by marketing professor Freeman Wu and coauthors found that using a phone to film events such as concerts can lead to social penalties, even affecting relationships between friends.

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