Dr Olaya Moldes Andres
(she/her)
Lecturer in Marketing and Strategy
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Marketing and Strategy at Cardiff Business School.
I obtained a PhD in Social Psychology (University of Sussex), an MRes in Research Methods in Psychology (University of Sussex), an MSc in Management and Entrepreneurship (University of Sussex), and a BSc(Hons) in Communication and Media Studies (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). I also did a year abroad as an exchange student at the University of Ottawa and the University of Sussex. I have been a lecturer in marketing at De Montfort University, a visiting lecturer at the University of Brighton, and an associate tutor and module leader at the University of Sussex (School of Psychology and School of Business).
My work has been published in both marketing and psychology journals including Psychology & Marketing, the British Journal of Social Psychology, the Journal of Economic Psychology, and the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, and has been mentioned in multiple news outlets including The Conversation, The Guardian, and Wales Online.
Before embracing a career in academia, I worked as a Marketing Manager for Hewlett-Packard, and I gained extensive experience in direct marketing as a product promoter for brands such as Samsung or Kodak, and as a communication assistant at a United Nations conference while pursuing my studies.
My primary research focus is on identity and motivational processes involved in consumption, the impact of consumption on individual and societal well-being, and the use of consumer products to define, develop, and create interpersonal relationships.
Publication
2023
- Moldes, O. 2023. Beyond experiential spending: Consumers report higher well-being from purchases that satisfy intrinsic goals. British Journal of Social Psychology 62(2), pp. 883-897. (10.1111/bjso.12602)
2022
- Moldes, O., Dineva, D. and Ku, L. 2022. Has the COVID-19 pandemic made us more materialistic? The effect of COVID-19 and lockdown restrictions on the endorsement of materialism. Psychology and Marketing 39(5), pp. 892-905. (10.1002/mar.21627)
- Ku, L., Newby, C., Moldes Andres, O., Zaroff, C. M. and Wu, A. M. S. 2022. The values you endorse set the body you see: The protective effect of intrinsic life goals on men’s body dissatisfaction. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 63(4), pp. 393-404. (10.1111/sjop.12818)
2020
- Moldes, O. and Ku, L. 2020. Materialistic cues make us miserable: A meta‐analysis of the experimental evidence for the effects of materialism on individual and societal well‐being. Psychology and Marketing 37(10), pp. 1396-1419. (10.1002/mar.21387)
2019
- Moldes, O., Banerjee, R., Easterbrook, M. J., Harris, P. R. and Dittmar, H. 2019. Identity changes and well-being gains of spending money on material and experiential consumer products. Journal of Economic Psychology 72, pp. 229-244. (10.1016/j.joep.2019.04.003)
Articles
- Moldes, O. 2023. Beyond experiential spending: Consumers report higher well-being from purchases that satisfy intrinsic goals. British Journal of Social Psychology 62(2), pp. 883-897. (10.1111/bjso.12602)
- Moldes, O., Dineva, D. and Ku, L. 2022. Has the COVID-19 pandemic made us more materialistic? The effect of COVID-19 and lockdown restrictions on the endorsement of materialism. Psychology and Marketing 39(5), pp. 892-905. (10.1002/mar.21627)
- Ku, L., Newby, C., Moldes Andres, O., Zaroff, C. M. and Wu, A. M. S. 2022. The values you endorse set the body you see: The protective effect of intrinsic life goals on men’s body dissatisfaction. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 63(4), pp. 393-404. (10.1111/sjop.12818)
- Moldes, O. and Ku, L. 2020. Materialistic cues make us miserable: A meta‐analysis of the experimental evidence for the effects of materialism on individual and societal well‐being. Psychology and Marketing 37(10), pp. 1396-1419. (10.1002/mar.21387)
- Moldes, O., Banerjee, R., Easterbrook, M. J., Harris, P. R. and Dittmar, H. 2019. Identity changes and well-being gains of spending money on material and experiential consumer products. Journal of Economic Psychology 72, pp. 229-244. (10.1016/j.joep.2019.04.003)
Research
Research interests
- Self and identity in consumption
- Well-being in consumer settings
- Materialistic values
Other publications:
- The Conversation (August 2022): Four ways to spend your dwindling cash that will boost your wellbeing
- The Conversation (February 2022): COVID may have made us less materialistic – new research
-
Cardiff Business School Blog (September 2020): Rags‐to‐riches stories and upscale living TV can influence our well-being and our interaction with the environment and other people
Teaching
- BS2535 Buyer Behaviour (Year 2 - Level 5)
- BST215 Quantitative Research Methods (Master - Level 7)
Biography
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- PhD in Social Psychology (University of Sussex)
- MRes in Psychological Research Methods (University of Sussex)
- MSc in Management and Entrepreneurship (University of Sussex)
- BSc(Hons) in Communication and Media Studies (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Honours and awards
- 2022: Awarded the most downloaded paper of 2022 by the Journal Psychology & Marketing for the article titled: Has the COVID‐19 pandemic made us more materialistic? The effect of COVID‐19 and lockdown restrictions on the endorsement of materialism.
- 2022: Funding award: Academy of Marketing 2022. Principal Investigator.
- 2021: Awarded top downloaded paper of 2021 by the Journal Psychology & Marketing for the article titled: Materialistic cues make us miserable: A meta‐analysis of the experimental evidence for the effects of materialism on individual and societal well‐being
- 2019: Funding award: BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants SRG 2018-19 [SRG1819\190659]. Co-applicant.
- 2009 Awarded best student of the year by the department of Business and Management (University of Sussex).
- 2008: Awarded a prize for a Social Marketing Campaign ‘Alcohol and Road’ by Santander Bank.
Academic positions
- 2020 - present: Lecturer in Marketing and Strategy, Cardiff University
- 2018 - 2019: Lecturer in Marketing, De Montfort University
- 2018: Visiting Lecturer, Brighton University
- 2013-2018: Associated Tutor and Module Leader, University of Sussex (School of Psychology and School of Business)
Speaking engagements
American Marketing Association Summer Conference 4th to 6th of August. San Francisco, US. |
Oral presentation: Materialism and Interpersonal Well-being: A Meta-analysis (15 minutes presentation). |
Academy of Marketing Annual Conference 4th to 6th of July. Birmingham, UK. |
Oral presentation: Does second-hand clothing make us happier than brand new garments? (20 minutes presentation) |
Psychology Seminar Series at De Montfort University. 13th of June 2023. Leicester, UK. |
Oral presentation: ‘You Are Not Good Enough’ The Effects of Materialism on Perceived Discrepancies between the Actual and Ideal Concept of a Significant Other (50 minutes presentation). |
International Convention of Psychological Science (ICPS) 9th to 11th of March 2023. Brussels, Belgium. |
Oral presentation: Materialism and Interpersonal Well-being: A Meta-analysis (15 minutes presentation). |
British Psychological Society - Social Psychology Annual Conference 5th to 7th of September 2022. London, UK. |
Oral presentation: How does materialism affect interpersonal relationships? A Meta-analysis (20 minutes presentation). |
International Association for Research in Economic Psychology IAREP 2022. 9th to 10th of June 2022. Kristiansand, Norway. |
Oral presentation: Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Made Us More Materialistic? The Effect of COVID-19 and Lockdown Restrictions on the Endorsement of Materialism (20 minutes presentation). |
International Association for Research in Economic Psychology (IAREP) & the Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE) 2021. 10th to 13th of June 2021. Virtual Conference. |
Oral presentation: Spending Money to Satisfy Intrinsic Goals Makes It More Worthy: The Role of Individual Goals in Hedonic Value Judgements of Consumer Products (20 minutes presentation). |
Association for Consumer Research ACR 2020. 1st to 4th of October 2020. Virtual Conference. |
Data blitz: The “Why” of Spending Matters: The Role of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Goals on Consumer Spending Choices and Hedonic Value Estimations. |
American Marketing Association Summer Conference 2019 10th of August 2019. Chicago, US. |
Presentation within a special session on “the relational consumer”: The role of goal orientations on pro-social vs. pro-self spending behaviours (20 minutes presentation). |
Psychology Seminar Series at De Montfort University. 12th of December 2018. Leicester, UK. |
Oral presentation: Negative Effects of Materialism on Individual and Social Well-being: A Meta-Analysis on Experimental Studies (50 minutes presentation) |
Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) 2nd of March 2018. Atlanta, US. |
Poster: Spending Money on “My Sense of Self”: Identity-Related Functions of Material and Experiential Purchases and its Relationships to Well-Being |
Self and Identity Pre-Conference 1st of March 2018. Atlanta, US. |
Poster: Self-defining vs. self-expressing functions from purchases: Exploring the link between identity and well-being |
European Association of Social Psychology (EASP) 6th July 2017. Granada, Spain. |
Poster: Buying motives, Identity and well-being from experiential and material purchases |
British Psychology Society (BPS) - Symposium on Identity at the University College London 29th of June 2017. London, UK. |
Oral presentation: The construction of the extended sense of self through purchasing: Identity Motives and Well-Being (20 minutes presentation) |
Annual British Psychology Society Conference 4th of May 2017. Brighton, UK. |
Oral presentation: Differences between forecasted and retrospective construction of the extended sense of self through purchasing and well-being evaluations (20 minutes presentation) |
Social Psychology Applied Seminar at the University of Sussex 2nd November 2016. Brighton, UK. |
Oral presentation: Buying motives and consumer well-being evaluations from experiential and material purchases (25 minutes presentation) |
3 Minutes Thesis Competition (Doctoral School) 8th June 2016. Brighton, UK. |
Oral presentation: Shopping, identity and happiness: Is not WHAT we buy but WHY we buy it what makes us happy (3 minutes) |
PhD Pub Brighton 6th of July 2016. Brighton, UK. |
Oral presentation: Does Money make me happy? How about shopping? (10 minutes presentation) |
Social Psychology Applied Seminar 2015 University of Sussex 14th October 2015. Brighton, UK. |
Oral presentation: The role of materialistic value orientations in affective evaluations during the purchase process (25 minutes) |
Committees and reviewing
Ad hoc journal reviewer for Psychology & Marketing, Self & Identity, Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Psychological Reports, Journal of Happiness Studies, Frontiers in Psychology, BMC Psychology, Journal of Consumers Affairs and Telematics and Informatics R.
Supervisions
I am interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of:
- Self and identity construction in consumption
- Consumer's well-being
- Conspicuous consumption and materialistic values
Current supervision

Sarah Hughes
Research student
Research themes
Specialisms
- Social psychology
- Consumer behaviour
- Marketing