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When her summer internship plans fell through as a result of COVID-19, Isabelle Labianco '22 was able to rebound quickly. She spent the next several months researching the intersection between behavioral economics and media messaging; particularly, how they combined in rather unique fashion during the early months of the pandemic.

When her summer internship plans fell through as a result of COVID-19, Isabelle Labianco '22 was able to rebound quickly. Instead of a summer in an office cubicle, Isabelle was accepted to the Provost�鶹��ý�s Summer 2020 Student-Faculty Undergraduate Research award program, and spent the next several months researching the intersection between behavioral economics and media messaging; particularly, how they combined in a rather unique fashion during the early months of the pandemic.

�鶹��ý�I was talking with my dad; we had the news on while we were chatting. I remember listening to what was going on in the news and seeing and remembering how people might use that information to make decisions,�鶹��ý� said Isabelle. �鶹��ý�I decided I wanted to look at how the news affected consumer behavior in the early months of the pandemic.�鶹��ý�

Specifically, Isabelle looked at how the news media affected consumer behaviors at grocery stores. The results she found were quite interesting.

�鶹��ý�What we found was that consumers who relied on the media as the main educational point throughout the pandemic were influenced in their consumer patterns at grocery stores,�鶹��ý� said Isabelle. �鶹��ý�For consumers who watched news outlets that were more left leaning, they demonstrated behaviors including stockpiling; mass purchasing of items at one time to sustain their need. On the other hand, we found more right leaning news consumers demonstrated the virus as less of a risk�鶹��ý�we called that the 'status quo' bias.�鶹��ý�

In addition to presenting at the National Conference of Undergraduate Research, Isabelle presented at the Eastern Economics Association Conference�鶹��ý�an experience that both Isabelle and her faculty advisor, Dyson Economics Professor Joseph Morreale, PhD, highly valued.

�鶹��ý�We have found over the years that it�鶹��ý�s really important to have students do this kind of innovative research,�鶹��ý� said Morreale. �鶹��ý�In Isabelle�鶹��ý�s case, she�鶹��ý�s crossing two disciplines. Secondly, the experience going to a conference to deliver the paper gave her tremendous feedback�鶹��ý�which she would not have necessarily gotten if she was just here. We�鶹��ý�re hopeful that once it�鶹��ý�s revised, we�鶹��ý�ll try to get it published. We think it�鶹��ý�s valuable enough to put forward.�鶹��ý�