Matt Johnson, PhD is a neuroscientist, speaker, and writer specializing in the application of psychology to marketing

Matt Johnson, PhD is a speaker, writer, and researcher, specializing in the application of psychology and neuroscience to branding. Following his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Princeton University, his work has probed the science of brand storytelling, experiential marketing, and consumer decision-making. He is the author of the top-selling consumer psychology book, Blindsight: The (mostly) hidden ways marketing reshapes our brains (BenBella, 2020), and most recently, Branding That Means Business (Economist Books, Fall 2022). In 2023, he was inducted into Thinkers50 Radar as one of 30 business thinkers with ideas most likely to shape the future.

As a contributor to major news outlets including Psychology Today, Forbes, and BBC, he provides expert opinion and thought leadership on a range of topics related to the human side of business. Matt is also passionate about helping brands harness insights from neuroscience to better understand, serve, and interact with their consumers. To this end, he consults with a wide array of organizations, including as an expert in residence for Nike. Matt currently resides in Boston, MA, where he is a Professor of Psychology and Marketing at Hult International Business School, and an instructor at Harvard University’s Division of Continuing Education. He has won several teaching awards, and is recognized by Poets & Quants as one of the 50 top business school professors.

Outside of formal classroom teaching, Matt works with a variety of marketing practitioners, enabling them to apply psychology and neuroscience in various aspects of their work. He regularly hosts specialized workshops and webinars, and has collaborated with LinkedIn Learning to create two specialized courses on consumer neuroscience.

Matt grew up in The Bay Area, California, and has lived and worked in San Diego, New Jersey, Berlin and Shanghai.

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Writing & Media

As an author, Matt is honored to be represented by Lisa Gallagher of DeFiore Agency, who also represents Neil Gaiman ("American Gods"), Steven Levitt ("Freakonomics"), Molly Bloom ("Molly's Game," now transformed into an Aaron Sorkin film), and numerous others.

Beyond his books, Matt is an avid writer of shorter-form pieces. He is the host of the human nature blog, which explores a range of topics related to psychology, philosophy, and society, and the neuroscience of marketing, centered on the intersection between neuroscience and consumerism.

Matt is passionate about making complex ideas accessible to a broad public audience. To this end, he is also the host of the Mind, Brain, and Value column on Psychology Today, which enjoyed by over 650,000 readers. Matt’s writing can also be found in The European Business Review, World Financial Review, Behavioral Economics, and Harvard Business Review. He is a regular guest on podcasts, television broadcasts, and in media interviews - for bookings and media, please reach out here.

Speaking and Workshops

Matt is an experienced TEDx and international keynote speaker specializing in neuroscience, branding, and consumer psychology. Matt regularly delivers talks, workshops, seminars, and speeches to groups ranging from small gatherings of executives, to marketing summits, to large public conferences broadcast on national media. He has also filmed several on-demand webinars and online courses, including two courses with Linkedin Learning.

Research

Matt’s research helps to address the underlying mechanisms that shape consumer psychology. He’s particularly interested in the hidden connections between marketing, consumerism and behavior, and how the activity of brands shapes human experiences. Marketing, when done right, can drive purchasing behavior. But what else can it do, both for good and for ill? How does marketing tap into our more general perceptual, cognitive, and social capacities?

To this end, he utilizes a range of methodologies, from neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI and EEG, to behavioral studies, to more theoretical approaches.

He’s also drawn to questions about the broader connections between marketing and society. How does consumerism interact with the culture at large, and with the changing technologies landscape? Can brands play a role in creating social norms and driving meaningful societal change? And if so, should they?

Recent research