Kamila Sobol, PhD

Education

2013 - Doctor of Philosophy in Administration, Schulich School of Business, York University (Toronto)
2008 - Masters of Science in Administration, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University (Montreal)

Research Interests

Dr. Sobol’s research examines the factors that shape consumer responses to salient self-standards frequently activated in advertising, such as beauty ideals and fear appeals. Her work seeks to identify marketing communication cues and design elements that enhance marketing effectiveness by encouraging consumers to engage in motivated decision-making and behaviors. Concurrently, she investigates the antecedents and consequences of consumer goal failure, aiming to understand why and how consumers deviate from their intended goals. Insights from this research inform the development of interventions that support consumer self-regulation and promote overall well-being. More recently, Dr. Sobol has extended her research to explore how cues on food packaging, including nutritional and warning labels, can motivate consumers to make healthier, more informed choices.

Areas of expertise

• Consumer behavior
• Goals and motivation, Self-regulation
  
• Self-identity
• Mental imagery
• Advertising
• Nutritional and warning labels

Teaching Presently

MARK 305 - Consumer Behavior (undergraduate)
MSCA 672 - Consumer Behavior (graduate)

Refereed journal articles

Huang, Bo, Sandra Laporte, Sylvain Senecal and Kamila Sobol (2025). Falling out with AI-buddies: The hidden costs of treating AI as a partner versus servant during service failure, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 219(Oct),124279.

Sobol,Kamila and Marilyn Giroux (2023). Threat specificity in fear appeals: Examination of fear response and compliant behavior, Journal of Consumer Marketing,40(4), 470-480. 

Tezer, Ali and Kamila Sobol (2021) My Life is a Mess, I Deserve a Brownie: Justifying Indulgence by Overstating the Severity of Life Problems, Psychology & Marketing. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21459

Sucapne, Daniella, Caroline Roux and Kamila Sobol (2021) Exploring how Product Descriptors and Packaging Colors Impact Consumers’ Perceptions of Plant-Based Meat Alternative Products, Appetite, 167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2021.105590

Kliamenakis, Argiro and Kamila Sobol (2021). When waiting pays off: The impact of delayed goal failure on self-perception and self-regulation, Psychology & Marketing, 38(5), 709-720. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mar.21459

Sobol, Kamila, Mark Cleveland and Michel Laroche(2018). Globalization, national identity, biculturalism and consumer behavior: A longitudinal study of Dutch consumers, Journal of Business Research, 82(January), 340-353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.044

Sobol, Kamila and Peter Darke (2014). I’d like to be that attractive, but at least I’m smart: How exposure to ideal advertising motivates improved decision making, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24(4), 533-540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2014.03.005

Selected work in progress

Selected refereed conference proceedings

Marioni, V, Sobol, K, and Roux, C. HarnessingFear Charity: The Impact of Fear and Cause Specificity on Charitable Giving, presented at the 2024 Society of Judgment and Decision Making (SLDM) conference.

Hamzeh, R., Sobol, K, and Kim, S. NewNutritional Label Effectiveness: The Case of the Inclusion of Added Sugar Daily Value on the Nutritional Facts Panel, presented at the 2024 Marketing Science conference.

Marinoni, V, Roux, C, and Sobol,K. Are Certain Types of Charitable Causes More Feared than Others?, presented atthe 2023 Southern Ontario Behavioral Decision Research (SOBDR) conference.

Sobol, K, Robitaille, N, and Walsh, D. Fending Off Failure: How Choosing theLesser Evil Eradicates the NegativeConsequences of Goal Failure, presented at the 2022 Behavioral Insights into Business for SocialGood (BIBSG) conference.

Sobol, K and Giroux, M. Threat Specificity in Fear Appeals and the Role of Perceived Assimilation to Threat, presented at the 2021 Academy of Consumer Research (ACR) conference.

Huang, B, Laporte, S, Senecal, S and Sobol, K. Partner or Servant? The Effect of Relationship Role on Consumer Interaction with Artificial Intelligence” presented at the 2021 Winter American Marketing Association (AMA) conference.

Sobol, K, Robitaille, N and Walsh, D. The Subjective Nature of Goal Failure and its Effects on Motivation, presented at the 2019 Society of Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM) conference.

Kliamenakis, A and Sobol, K. Saved for Later: The Positive and Negative Effects of a Delayed Indulgence, presented at the 2019 Academy of Consumer Research (ACR) conference.

Kliamenakis, A and Sobol, K. The Good and Bad of a Delayed Indulgence: Effects on Self-Perception and Purchase Satisfaction, presented at the 2019 Society of Consumer Psychology (SCP) conference.

Sobol, K. Subjective Experience of Goal Failure: How Choosing the Lesser Evil Eradicates the Negative Consequences of Goal Failure,
presented at the 2018 Academy of Consumer Research (ACR) conference.

Roux, C, Goldsmith, K, Sobol, K and Goodyear, L. Framing Health Products as Partners Versus Servants Impacts Pleasure Derived from Indulgences, presented at the 2017 Academy of Consumer Research (ACR) conference.

Sobol, K and Giroux, M. The Power of Negative Visualizations: When Fear Appeals Motivate Consumer Behavior, presented at the 2017 Academy of Consumer Research (ACR) conference.

Sobol, K and Darke, P. When Smart Shoppers make Foolish Decisions, presented at the 2015 Society of Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM) conference.

Cleveand, M, Sobol, K and Laroche, M. Globalization, National Identity, Biculturalism and Consumer Behavior: The Case of Dutch Consumers, presented at the 2015 Royal Bank International Research conference.

Sobol, K and Darke, P. The Negative Effects of Visualization on Consumer Motivation, presented at the 2015 Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP) conference.

Sobol, K and Darke, P. The Counterproductive Effects of Fantasies: How Visualizations of Goal Attainment Demotivate Consumer Behavior, presented at the 2014 Academy of Consumer Research (ACR) conference.