{"id":12121,"date":"2021-12-01T14:00:33","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T22:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/?p=12121"},"modified":"2026-02-19T14:58:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T22:58:54","slug":"mycah-harrold-phd-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/2021\/12\/01\/mycah-harrold-phd-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Mycah Harrold: Doctoral Candidate Studies How Social Norms Influence Women\u2019s Purchases"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Mycah
PhD student Mycah Harrold works with an undergraduate during a January, 2020, class on research methods.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Mycah Harrold\u2019s<\/a> doctoral thesis grew out of male colleagues\u2019 remarks about their morning routines. When she heard comments like \u201cI threw on a shirt with buttons,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019ve been up for less than an hour,\u201d it rankled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Wait a second. I\u2019ve been up for two hours getting ready to teach,\u2019\u201d recalls Harrold, a doctoral candidate in marketing at the WSU Carson College of Business. \u201cI stewed in my office, thinking about how many products I used, how much I spent on them, and the time I put into styling my hair, applying makeup, and making sure my nail polish wasn\u2019t chipped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harrold\u2019s master\u2019s and undergraduate degrees are in psychology, with a minor in gender studies. Adding a marketing lens, she pondered research possibilities related to double standards for professional appearance among men and women. Her resulting project won the college\u2019s Three-Minute Thesis Competition<\/a> last spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harrold looked at how identifying as feminist influenced women\u2019s purchases of beauty-related products. \u201cI thought feminists would be opposed to spending money on these types of products,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings were surprising: Women who identified as feminists placed more value\u2014and spent more\u2014on items such as makeup, grooming products, handbags, and other accessories than their nonfeminist peers. The findings are tied to choice, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFeminists have repositioned behaviors like wearing make-up as things they do for themselves instead of things they do to meet societal expectations,\u201d Harrold says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By framing beauty routines as a choice, not an obligation, feminists enjoy the activities more and are willing to spend more on those products and accessories, her research concludes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coerced consumption in the marketplace<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Harrold\u2019s research delves into coerced consumption\u2014when women feel compelled to purchase and use products to meet social norms, says Andrew Perkins<\/a>, associate professor in the Department of Marketing and International Business<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome professional women say they aren\u2019t comfortable going into the office without makeup and a nice outfit, while their male counterpart might be on a Zoom call in a T-shirt and a ball cap,\u201d Perkins says. \u201cThe asymmetry is so stark that once you notice it, it\u2019s hard to not see it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harrold\u2019s background in psychology, gender studies, and marketing brings depth to her research, he adds. Harrold says it prompts her to ask different kinds of marketing questions. Analyzing how men and women respond to advertising is a common area of marketing research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m more interested in how the marketplace drives the consumer\u2019s expression and experience of gender,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her doctoral research, Harrold has invited study participants to inventory the contents of their makeup bags. She led a focus group for women executives that included a discussion of professional dress codes. And she\u2019s analyzed the sponsored products featured on female influencers\u2019 social media platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introducing undergrads to research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Harrold\u2019s enthusiasm for research spills into her teaching. During her time at the Carson College, she\u2019s helped create new research opportunities for undergraduates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like to get undergrads involved in research, especially if they think they might want to get a PhD,\u201d she says. \u201cResearch is its own world. You really have to get your hands dirty to know whether it\u2019s going to fuel you for a career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harrold led a reorganization of the college\u2019s Center for Behavioral Business Research<\/a>, which now uses undergraduate research assistants to oversee the routine aspects of data collection in the laboratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also teaches the capstone class for the Certificate of Academic Achievement in Behavioral Business Research. Using curriculum Harrold developed, undergraduate students strive to replicate landmark studies in consumer behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a creator,\u201d Harrold says. \u201cI quilt, I knit socks, and I\u2019m learning how to paint with watercolors. But designing that class from scratch, which was so fun, is one of my proudest creations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harrold will graduate in spring 2022, and she’s headed to Regis University in Denver, where she’ll be an assistant professor of marketing. During her time in the Carson College\u2019s doctoral program, she\u2019s developed a reputation for her fresh ideas and energy, teaching skills, and willingness to mentor others, Perkins says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s been so valuable to the marketing department,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re a better department because she\u2019s been here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doctoral Student Mycah Harrold looked at how identifying as feminist influenced women\u2019s purchases of beauty-related products. The findings were surprising: Women who identified as feminists placed more value\u2014and spent more\u2014on items such as makeup, grooming products, and other accessories than their non-feminist peers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":[634],"featured_media":18159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[605,425,550],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/634"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12121"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18752,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12121\/revisions\/18752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12121"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/author?post=12121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}