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Hilke Plassmann

Associate Professor of Marketing

Biography

Hilke Plassmann is INSEAD's Octapharma Chaired Professor of Decision Neuroscience and Associate Professor of Marketing at INSEAD. She joined INSEAD in September 2008. She is a Principal Investigator in the Social Affective Neuroscience Team at the Brain and Spine Institute (ICM) of Sorbonne University. She has been a visiting faculty at the Wharton School, NYU's Stern School of Business and Bonn University and Affiliated Faculty at the connive Neuroscience Unit of the Ecole Normale Superieure. In 2005, she earned a PhD in Marketing and Neuroscience (Dr.rer.pol) from the University of Münster´s School of Business and Economics, and then was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University and the California Institute of Technology.

Hilke is one of the pioneers in the nascent field of decision and consumer neuroscience. Her primary research areas are consumer decision-making and its strategic marketing implications at the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and economics (e.g., influence of marketing actions on the consumption experience, the neural basis of different decision-making related value signals, and ways to alter/self-control/regulate these signals).
Her research has appeared in leading academic journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology and Journal of Neuroscience. Hilke currently is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Consumer Research and Frontiers in Psychology Section Decision Neuroscience.
Her work has received international newspaper, radio, and TV coverage by, among others, CNN, ABC News, Fox News, Arte, Galileo, National Public Radio, The New York Times, The Economist, The New Yorker, Science Magazine, Scientific American, Harvard Business Review, Focus, Spiegel, and Absatzwirtschaft.

Hilke has written several award-winning cases and has worked with several large companies and start-ups. At INSEAD, Hilke teaches marketing management, consumer behaviour and neuromarketing. in the different programs that INSEAD offers. She co-directs the Business Foundations Certificate (BFC) Programme at INSEAD.

Latest posts

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Responsibility

Thoughtful Consumption for Well-Being and Sustainability

H. Plassmann, S. Rangan, E. Hansmeyer

Understanding consumer behaviour is key to making fashion more sustainable.

Marketing

The Neuroscience of Eating

B. Kessler, H. Plassmann

An entire biological ecosystem – encompassing complex connections between our gut and brain – underpins our daily food choices.
2 comments

Responsibility

Nudging Kids to Their Highest Potential

H. Plassmann, B. Kessler

How a top global NGO uses behavioural science to support parents and educators in some of the most challenging contexts.
1 comment

Marketing

Weight Loss Surgery Reduces Susceptibility to Food Marketing

H. Plassman, P. Chandon

Behavioural and neuroscience research by INSEAD and Sorbonne Université suggest bariatric surgery does a lot more than just help patients lose weight.

Leadership & Organisations

Battling ‘Covid-19 Brain’

H. Plassmann, B. Kessler

Here’s the science on how stressful events like Covid-19 take a toll on the best of us.
1 comment

Marketing

To Succeed With Neuromarketing, What Do You Need to Know?

H. Plassmann, A. Ling

Much of the classic market research advice applies to consumer neuroscience as well – but the emerging field also features unique challenges.