Sara Owsley Sood

About

Sara Owsley Sood is a Professor of Instruction and the Chookaszian Family Teaching Professor at Northwestern University, affiliated with the Department of Computer Science. She serves as the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Education within the McCormick School of Engineering. Her work focuses on understanding the expression and impact of emotion in online communication. Specifically, her recent research involves developing systems to detect and analyze insults, profanity, and personal attacks in online forums, with a particular emphasis on the effects of anonymity on online communities. Her exploration of sentiment analysis extends to addressing challenges related to domain specificity and analyzing a range of emotions beyond simple positive, negative, or neutral classifications. Sood has been recognized for her excellence in teaching, receiving the 2019 Cole-Higgins Award for Excellence in Teaching, the 2019 University Teaching Award, and the 2010 Pomona College Wig Distinguished Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Engineering
• Engineering management
• Mathematics education
• Mechanical engineering
• Composite material
• Manufacturing engineering
• Knowledge management

Selected publications

• Preference-Construction Habits: The Case of Extremeness Aversion

  Journal of the Association for Consumer Research · 2017-07-01 · 6 citations

  articleSenior author

  We propose that choice construction strategies often meet the criteria for “habits.” As an example of a constructed preference habit, we focus on extremeness aversion, namely, the tendency to prefer a middle or “compromise” option versus an “extreme” option from a given options set. We present evidence that some consumers appear to have a habitual tendency to avoid extreme options that is (1) partly heritable, (2) formed in childhood, and (3) moderated by age and personality traits such as prefe…

  PublisherDOI

• Transported through Time: The Narrative Processing of Experiential Purchases

  Journal of the Association for Consumer Research · 2023-09-19 · 5 citations

  articleSenior author

  Consumer research has demonstrated that narrative and analytical processing are different styles of information processing. However, an enduring question is when do consumers engage in narrative processing? We propose that consumers are more likely to engage in narrative processing when they face an experiential purchase decision rather than a material purchase decision. Narrative transportation, a consequence of narrative processing, thus becomes a critical element for persuasion in the context…

  PublisherDOI

• How does the Endowment Effect Differ between Experience and Material Products?

  PsycEXTRA Dataset · 2014-01-01 · 2 citations

  datasetSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Identifying factors affecting placement status of engineering students using explainable machine learning

  Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research · 2018-12-01 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Machine learning (ML) models are increasing their penetration in different problem domains due to their increasing accuracy. Majority of the advanced ML-based stand high in predictive accuracy but are wanting in terms of explaining their outcomes. This research study has two objectives. First, to develop predictive models that can predict the placement status of undergraduate engineering students studying in India. Second, to understand the behavior of these ML-based models in terms of most impo…

  Publisher

• The Endowment Effect For Experiences

  ACR North American Advances · 2014-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Liat Hadar

  Tel Aviv University

  12 shared

• Yuval Rottenstreich

  9 shared

• Claudia Townsend

  8 shared

• Kristian J. Hammond

  8 shared

• Craig R. Fox

  Anderson University - South Carolina

  7 shared

• Lyle Brenner

  6 shared

• Kevin Lane Keller

  5 shared

• Aimée Drolet

  Anderson University - South Carolina

  4 shared

Education

• PhD, Graduate School of Business

  Stanford University

Awards & honors

• 2019 Cole-Higgins Awards for Excellence in Teaching
• 2019 University Teaching Awards - Charles Deering McCormick…
• 2010 Pomona College Wig Distinguished Professor Award for Ex…

Similar researchers at Northwestern University

• Tobin J. Marksh-176
• Joseph Hupph-171
• James D Thomash-160