Prof. Anne-Sophie Chaxel

Anne Sophie Chaxel is Associate Professor of Marketing at HEC Paris. Chaxel studies unconscious biases in what we believe and do and turns behavioral research into evidence-based guidance for decision makers in business and policy.

How does the mind process information? Anne Sophie Chaxel shows how subtle cues shape the way people interpret objective information. For instance, scientific evidence may be objective, yet audiences view it through personal lenses and may form different beliefs about the scientific findings. The same holds for product performance data: brand beliefs color how numbers are interpreted. In other words, minds turn “objective” facts into subjective beliefs. By finding where these hidden cognitive biases appear, she builds theory and tools that help people and companies make more strategic choices.

Her current research examines how personal beliefs shape acceptance of scientific evidence, how institutional distrust influences leadership choices, and how workforce diversity affects consumers’ perceptions of product value. For instance, one of her current working papers demonstrates that institutional distrust triggers a pervasive cognitive conflict, boosting people’s need for consistency and ultimately making them prefer leaders who take clear, uncompromising stances. By uncovering this psychological chain, the paper explains how eroding trust in public institutions can pave the way for more polarizing, one-sided leadership. It sheds light on a key mechanism driving today’s democratic turbulence.

Her work appears in leading reviews, such as the Journal of Consumer Research, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and Psychological Science. It has also been featured in Forbes, HR Magazine, and The Conversation.

She teaches marketing and managerial decision-making across HEC programs.

Honors include Poets&Quants 40 Under 40 (2021), the Vernimmen HEC Teaching Award (2020), and MSI Young Scholar (2019).