Graham Overton

Graham Overton serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Marketing Department at the National University of Singapore's Business School. His academic credentials include a PhD in Administration & Management Sciences from Bocconi University (2023), an MSc in Management from INSEAD (2017), and a BSc in Commerce from the University of Alabama (2010).

Dr. Overton's research focuses on the psychological mechanisms behind human judgment and decision-making processes. His work examines how people interpret and draw conclusions from social and numerical information in various contexts:

• How consumers form expectations based on preference statements
• The relationship between consensus information and perceived preference magnitude
• Cognitive biases in interpreting statistical data
• How distributional beliefs affect consumer choices

His recent publication in the Journal of Consumer Research (2025) demonstrates a critical cognitive bias where consumers systematically misinterpret consensus information (e.g., 90% prefer product A over B) as indicating a much larger difference in actual liking than typically exists. This research reveals that while a 90% consensus might suggest product A is preferred, the actual liking difference is often minimal, yet consumers believe the difference must be substantial.

Dr. Overton's work has significant practical implications for marketers, managers, and policymakers who present preference information to consumers. His research suggests that educating consumers about the statistical properties of preference distributions can correct these erroneous inferences, potentially leading to more informed decision-making. His research bridges consumer psychology, behavioral economics, and marketing science, contributing valuable insights into how people process and act upon statistical information in real-world contexts.