Publications

Article

Social Recycling Transforms Unwanted Goods into Happiness

By: Grant Edward Donnelly, Cait Lamberton, Rebecca Walker Reczek and Michael I. Norton

Consumers are often surrounded by resources that once offered meaning or happiness but that have lost this subjective value over time—even as they retain their objective utility. We explore the potential for social recycling—disposing of used goods by allowing other... View Details

Keywords: Disposition; Well-being; Prosocial Behavior; Pro-environmental Behavior; Happiness; Behavior; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Environmental Sustainability

Article

From Thinking Too Little to Thinking Too Much: A Continuum of Decision Making.

By: Dan Ariely and Michael I. Norton

Due to the sheer number and variety of decisions that people make in their everyday lives-from choosing yogurts to choosing religions to choosing spouses-research in judgment and decision making has taken many forms. We suggest, however, that much of this research has... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Cognition and Thinking; Judgments; Research; Problems and Challenges

April 2022
Article

Consumers Value Effort over Ease When Caring for Close Others

By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Mary Steffel, Elanor F. Williams and Michael I. Norton

Many products and services are designed to make caregiving easier, from premade meals for feeding families to robo-cribs that automatically rock babies to sleep. Yet, using these products may come with a cost: consumers may feel they have not exerted enough effort.... View Details

Keywords: Effor; Caregiving; Close Relationships; Symbolic Meaning; Signaling; Relationships; Consumer Behavior; Perception

2007
Working Paper

The 'Fees → Savings' Link, or Purchasing Fifty Pounds of Pasta

By: Michael I. Norton and Leonard Lee

Many consumers have had the experience of entering discount membership clubs to make a few purchases, only to leave with enough pasta to outlast a nuclear winter. We suggest that the presence of membership fees can lead consumers to infer a "fees → savings" link,... View Details

Keywords: Price; Profit; Spending; Consumer Behavior; Retail Industry

June 2012
Article

Consequence-Cause Matching: Looking to the Consequences of Events to Infer Their Causes

By: Robyn A. LeBoeuf and Michael I. Norton

We show that people non-normatively infer event causes from event consequences. For example, people inferred that a product failure (computer crash) had a large cause (widespread computer virus) if it had a large consequence (job loss), but that the identical failure... View Details

Keywords: Causal Inference; Product; Forecasting and Prediction; Motivation and Incentives; Failure

22 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 22

Experimental Psychology: General The (Perceived) Meaning of Spontaneous Thoughts By: Morewedge, Carey K., Colleen E. Giblin, and Michael I. View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

A 'Present' for the Future: The Unexpected Value of Rediscovery

By: Ting Zhang, Tami Kim, Alison Wood Brooks, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton

Although documenting everyday activities may seem trivial, four studies reveal that creating records of the present generates unexpected benefits by allowing future rediscoveries. In Study 1, we use a "time capsule" paradigm to show that individuals underestimate the... View Details

Keywords: History; Information Management; Cognition and Thinking

29 Mar 2016
First Look

March 29, 2016

By: Buell, Ryan W., Ethan Porter, and Michael I. Norton Abstract—As Americans' trust in government nears historic lows, frustration with... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Oct 2015
First Look

October 13, 2015

Amy, Elizabeth Baily Wolf, Peter Glick, Susan Crotty, Jihye Chong, and Michael I. Norton Abstract—Four studies tested whether cultural values... View Details

13 Oct 2010
First Look

First Look: October 13, 2010

Nyende, Claire Ashton-James, and Michael I. Norton Abstract This research provides the first support for a possible psychological universal:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2018
Article

Consumers Avoid Buying from Firms with Higher CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratios

By: Bhavya Mohan, Tobias Schlager, Rohit Deshpandé and Michael I. Norton

We document a novel driver of consumer behavior: pay ratio disclosure. Swiss corporation performance data gathered during a legally mandated pay ratio referendum reveals that salient high pay ratios are associated with decreased firm sales (Pilot Study). An... View Details

Keywords: Pay Ratio; Wage Fairness; Purchase Intention; Customers; Wages; Fairness; Consumer Behavior

July 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

(PRODUCT) RED (A)

By: Youngme E. Moon, Michael I. Norton and David Chen

Describes the launch and initial results of the (PRODUCT) RED campaign, a social marketing initiative conceived by U2's Bono and Bobby Shriver to combat AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. The company licensed the (RED) brand to partner companies, which initially included Gap,... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Social Enterprise; Africa

Educators

Purchase

October 2012
Article

The Preference for Potential

By: Zakary L. Tormala, Jayson Jia and Michael I. Norton

When people seek to impress others, they often do so by highlighting individual achievements. Despite the intuitive appeal of this strategy, we demonstrate that people often prefer potential rather than achievement when evaluating others. Indeed, compared with... View Details

Keywords: Preferences; Persuasion; Uncertainty; Risk and Uncertainty; Performance Expectations; Attitudes

Article

Brand (In)fidelity: When Flirting with the Competition Strengthens Brand Relationships

By: Irene Consiglio, Daniella Kupor, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton

We document the existence and consequences of brand flirting: a short-lived experience in which a consumer engages with and/or indulges in the alluring qualities of a brand without committing to it. We propose that brand flirting is exciting and that when consumers... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Brands and Branding; Emotions

October 2012
Article

Giving Time Gives You Time

By: Cassie Mogilner, Zoe Chance and Michael I. Norton

Four experiments reveal a counterintuitive solution to the common problem of feeling that one does not have enough time: giving some of it away. Although people's objective amount of time cannot be increased (there are only 24 hours in a day), this research... View Details

Keywords: Time Perception; Well-being; Volunteering; Prosocial Behavior; Helping; Time Management; Welfare

January 26, 2016
Article

Hiding Personal Information Reveals the Worst

By: Leslie K. John, Kate Barasz and Michael I. Norton

Seven experiments explore people's decisions to share or withhold personal information and the wisdom of such decisions. When people choose not to reveal information—to be "hiders"—they are judged negatively by others (experiment 1). These negative judgments emerge... View Details

Keywords: Disclosure; Transparency; Policy-making; Privacy; Information; Corporate Disclosure; Decision Choices and Conditions; Trust

26 Nov 2013
First Look

First Look: November 26

Thinking-Not Feeling-Jobs By: Waytz, Adam, and Michael I. Norton Abstract—Technological innovations have produced robots capable of jobs that,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Nov 2010
First Look

First Look: November 23

Todd Rogers and Michael I. Norton Publication: Harvard Business Review 88, no. 11 (November 2010) Abstract This article presents a dual interview... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July – August 2008
Article

Help Employees Give Away Some of That Bonus

By: Michael I. Norton and Elizabeth W. Dunn

Employees who spend some or all of their bonuses on others-thereby creating what the authors call a "prosocial" workplace-are happier as a result. Managers can enhance that effect by providing opportunities to share the wealth. View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Behavior; Happiness