Patrick Fagan

Biography

Patrick is a consumer psychologist in both an academic and a commercial sense. Academically, Patrick is a consumer psychology lecturer at London College of Fashion, as well as an Associate Lecturer in Consumer Behaviour and the Psychology of Marketing and Advertising at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

He has a BSc in psychology from University College London and an MSc in International Marketing from King’s College London, and he has published peer-reviewed papers on topics ranging from price psychology to Facebook psychology.

Patrick also frequently writes for press and blogs, appearing in publications like The Guardian, The Evening Standard and AdMap, and also makes radio and TV appearances on consumer psychology.

Commercially, Patrick has over five years’ experience applying brain science to business, having worked for a number of behavioural science consultancies, and having independently consulted for brands like eBay, PokerStars and Vodafone. Patrick’s book, Sticky Messages: The secret psychology behind making people notice, like and share what you write will be published by Pearson in 2015.


Patrick frequently conducts research on consumer psychology in an academic context, but also as part of commercial consulting.

The overall theme of research covers consumer psychology - why exactly shoppers buy products/brands, and how to influence that behaviour for practical gain.

Academic research has including:
◾looking at the link between personality and music preferences;
◾investigating the psychology of who uses Facebook and why, and what the effects are;
◾and writing a review of the psychological principles behind effective pricing tactics.

For brands, research takes the form of either experiments or literature reviews. Experiments have, for example, included:
◾the implicit perception and recognition of brand assets (e.g. logos);
◾the influence of background noises on online shopping behaviours;
◾a psychometric test of brand ‘coolness’.

Meanwhile, literature reviews have investigated: using heuristics to increase charitable giving; using psychological insights to improve packaging effectiveness; and creating an evidence-based marketing strategy for a tech start-up.