REU student presents research to JMU Board of Visitors

When senior Marketing and Business Management double major Morgan Tribby was invited to present her research on consumer behavior to the James Madison University Board of Visitors (BoV), she immediately recognized how rare the opportunity was. That moment was the culmination of a journey that began through the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, which pairs students and faculty on research projects that often lead to conference presentations or published work. 

“When I was asked to present to the Board of Visitors, I was incredibly honored and excited,” Tribby said. “It’s not an opportunity many students get, so it felt both empowering and humbling.” Presenting alongside her faculty mentor, Dr. Gizem Atav, associate professor of Marketing, made the experience even more special; it was a recognition of their teamwork and the effort behind the project.

The invitation came from the BoV’s Academic Excellence Committee which was seeking faculty–student teams to showcase collaborative research from across campus. Atav said the selection underscored the commitment to scholarship. “Seeing this emphasis elevated by the university—and encouraged by the Board itself—was both meaningful and affirming.”

Tribby and Atav have been exploring how front-of-package health claims can lead consumers to overlook important nutrition information. Their study builds on past research suggesting that when marketing messages match what consumers already expect, they tend to accept them without much thought.

To test this, they recruited approximately 500 participants and assigned them to view either a product perceived as healthy (such as broccoli chips) or unhealthy (such as potato chips). Within those groups, each participant saw either a matching claim (“healthiest”) or a contrasting claim (“tastiest”) on the package. They then measured whether the participant checked the nutrition label.

The results revealed an interesting pattern: when the front-of-package claim didn’t match expectations, participants were more likely to check the nutrition label. But the group least likely to look was those who saw a health claim on a product already perceived as healthy. Tribby noted that this suggests consumers may be “more vulnerable to deceptive marketing when products appear healthy.”

Their project has become a significant part of Tribby’s academic journey, which started well before she ever stepped into a research role. Prior to joining the REU program, Tribby said she didn’t realize research opportunities existed for business students. “At first, I didn’t even know it was possible to do research in the College of Business,” she said. While studying abroad with Atav, she learned about the REU program, and “when we got back, Dr. Atav and I connected, and I’ve been doing research with her ever since,” she shared.

Her experience has also reshaped the way she thinks about business research and its importance. “This experience has unlocked a side of business that I didn’t know existed,” she said. Through hands-on research, she began to see “how companies actually use data to make decisions” and discovered the “depth and strategy behind research-driven insights.”

Tribby will begin her career as an account manager at Gartner after graduation and said that conducting research has strengthened the skills she will need. “I’ll essentially be selling research, and having hands-on experience conducting and interpreting research has helped me build the critical thinking, communication, and analytical skills I will need to understand, communicate, and apply those insights effectively,” she said. The REU program also introduced her to experiences she “never imagined doing as a business student,” including presenting at the Association of Consumer Research Conference in Washington, D.C. The process has even inspired her to consider pursuing a Ph.D. in the future.

For Atav, student-faculty collaboration is integral to her work. “Collaborating with students is one of the most exciting parts of my career,” she said. Students bring “fresh eyes, excitement and questions that I may have stopped asking because I became too theoretical or too ‘expert.’”

Atav said the most rewarding part is watching students shift their sense of identity as they engage with real research. “They stop seeing themselves as people who merely learn concepts and start seeing themselves as people who create knowledge,” she said. “That moment… is priceless.”