AIM-Lab
No single method is the best. At AIM-Lab, we believe that a multi-method approach allows for innovative insights in both research and business practices. We explore and apply the latest methodologies in behavioral science research, with a specific focus on the marketing context, aiming for a rigorous understanding of consumer behavior.
The AIM-Lab stands for a lab for:
Adventure In Methods
of marketing research
Artificial Intelligence Methods
and computational techniques
Advanced Interdisciplinary Methods
in consumer behavior
AIM-Lab Faculty Directors
Yu Ding
Yu Ding is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Stanford GSB. His research aims to help firms address trust deficits. His research topics cover trust in authority (e.g., science), trust in brands (e.g., news media), trust in people (e.g., strangers), and debiasing, in contexts of misinformation and social media.
Ada Aka
Ada is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Stanford GSB. She studies the cognitive processes underlying marketing decisions, with a particular emphasis on the role of memory in consumer behavior. Ada uses interdisciplinary methodological and experimental approaches, incorporating computational models, natural language processing, machine learning, and behavioral studies.
Szu-chi Huang
Szu-chi Huang is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Stanford GSB. Her research focuses on motivation science, specifically the temporal and social dynamics of goal pursuit. Her recent projects examine consumer motivation in social settings, such as shared goal-pursuit platforms (e.g., Weight Watchers, Fitbit) and pro-social behaviors (e.g., motivation behind donations). Her recent work explores topics related to machines and service robots, spending and investing, and creativity.
AIM-Lab Graduate Researchers
Louise Lu
Louise is interested in how digital platforms and new technology affect consumer behavior and decision-making. Her research aims to develop the methodological novelty and variety (e.g., natural language processing, machine learning, etc.) that can help explore the consumer psychology and behavior of technology and new media usage.
Courtney Lee
Courtney is broadly interested in utilizing computational methods, specifically natural language processing, to gain insights on consumer goal pursuit and motivation. She is also interested in exploring how we balance different goals, identities, and attitudes. Outside of research, Courtney loves to golf, swing dance, and try new recipes.
Abby Bergman
Abby Bergman is a 3rd year PhD student at Stanford GSB. Abby’s research primarily focuses on Goals and Motivation in individuals and groups. In her free time, Abby can be found swimming in SF Bay.
David Fang
Driven by a passion for understanding human behavior, David specializes in two key areas: human communication, where he explores the influence of social nuances like language on interpersonal interactions, and human-technology interaction, where he studies the psychological effects of ever-advancing technologies to comprehend human behavior and foster digital well-being in an increasingly tech-saturated world.
Mohamed Hussein
Mohamed's research explores the intersection of politics and marketing. He explores questions such as: what are the psychological barriers that prevent consumers from engaging with political information that contradicts their prior beliefs? How has the rise of extreme political candidates changed the political marketing space? At Stanford, Mohamed is a member of the inaugural cohort of the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship. He was also awarded the Diversifying Academia Recruiting Excellence (DARE) Fellowship.
Tara Srirangarajan
Tara is a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at Stanford. She uses interdisciplinary approaches including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and virtual reality technology to study the interplay between emotion, decision-making, and consumer behavior.
AIM-Lab Research Assistants
Yiting Shen
Yiting Shen is a pre-doctoral research fellow in Marketing at Stanford GSB. He received his bachelor's degree in computer science, data science, and psychology and master's degree in computer science and engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He uses various artificial intelligence techniques, such as machine learning and natural language processing, to tackle research problems in the contexts of marketing and behavioral science.
Kristine Ma
Kristine Ma is an undergraduate student at Stanford and serves as a research assistant under Professors Yu Ding and Ada Aka. Outside of her interests in business and marketing, she is pursuing degrees in Symbolic Systems and English. As a writer, her work appears in Diode, Up the Staircase Quarterly, The Hunger, and Perhappened, among others. When she isn’t studying, researching, or writing, she can be found playing piano, watching anime, and playing with her cat (even though she’s allergic).
AIM-Lab Alumni
Dingchen (Dylan) Sha, Ph.D. student in Marketing, Duke University
Yuchen Wu, Ph.D. student in Marketing, Cornell University
Research Resources
World Values Survey
