Publications
Publications
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(119,771)
- Faculty Publications (221)
- Article
Getting the Most Out of Giving: Concretely Framing a Prosocial Goal Maximizes Happiness
By: Melanie Rudd, Jennifer Aaker and Michael I. Norton
Across six field and laboratory experiments, participants assigned a more concretely-framed prosocial goal (e.g., making someone smile or increasing recycling) felt happier and reported creating greater personal happiness after performing a goal-directed act of... View Details
- Article
How Much (More) Should CEOs Make? A Universal Desire for More Equal Pay
By: Sorapop Kiatpongsan and Michael I. Norton
Do people from different countries and different backgrounds have similar preferences for how much more the rich should earn than the poor? Using survey data from 40 countries (N = 55,238), we compare respondents' estimates of the wages of people in different... View Details
- Article
The (Perceived) Meaning of Spontaneous Thoughts
By: Carey K. Morewedge, Colleen Giblin and Michael I. Norton
Spontaneous thoughts, the output of a broad category of uncontrolled and inaccessible higher-order mental processes, arise frequently in everyday life. The seeming randomness by which spontaneous thoughts arise might give people good reason to dismiss them as... View Details
- July 2014 (Revised August 2018)
- Course Overview Note
FIELD Foundations
- 2014
- Article
Thought Calibration: How Thinking Just the Right Amount Increases One’s Influence and Appeal
By: Daniella Kupor, Zakary L. Tormala, Michael I. Norton and Derek D. Rucker
Previous research suggests that people draw inferences about their attitudes and preferences based on their own thoughtfulness. The current research explores how observing other individuals make decisions more or less thoughtfully can shape perceptions of those... View Details
- 2014
- Article
Unequality: Who Gets What and Why It Matters
Who should get what, and what are the consequences? Economic inequality in the United States has been rising for decades, yet only recently have behavioral scientists explored two central questions surrounding the optimal level of inequality. First, what are the... View Details
- 2014
- Working Paper
Amount and Diversity of Emotional Expression on Facebook Predicts Life Satisfaction around the World
By: A. Kogan, F. Zhang, R. Sun, E. Simon-Thomas, P. Piff, S. Fan, J. Gruber, J. Quoidbach, M. I. Norton, C. Gronin, P. Fleming, D. Keltner and A.W. Brooks
- 2014
- Working Paper
Handshaking Promotes Cooperative Dealmaking
By: Juliana Schroeder, Jane Risen, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton
Humans use subtle sources of information—like nonverbal behavior—to determine whether to act cooperatively or antagonistically when they negotiate. Handshakes are particularly consequential nonverbal gestures in negotiations because people feel comfortable initiating... View Details
- May 2014 (Revised January 2015)
- Case
Gastón Acurio: A Recipe for Success
By: Anat Keinan, Michael Norton, German Echecopar and Cintra Scott
Gastón Acurio, star chef and restaurateur from Peru, must decide whether and how to adapt his signature Peruvian cuisine to local tastes as he opens restaurants in new countries. View Details
- Article
Matchmaking Promotes Happiness
By: Lalin Anik and Michael I. Norton
Four studies document and explore the psychology underlying people's proclivity to connect people to each other—to play "matchmaker." First, Study 1 shows that chronic matchmaking is associated with higher well-being. Studies 2 and 3 show that matching others on the... View Details
- April 2014 (Revised June 2015)
- Case
Making stickK Stick: The Business of Behavioral Economics
By: Leslie John, Michael Norton and Michael Norris
Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.
stickK.com, a website that uses behavioral economics to help users achieve their goals, must choose between a direct-to-consumer or business-to-business model. The case... View Details
stickK.com, a website that uses behavioral economics to help users achieve their goals, must choose between a direct-to-consumer or business-to-business model. The case... View Details
Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Behavior Change; B2B Vs. B2C; Human Resource Management; Marketing Of Innovations; Health ＆ Wellness; Weight Loss; Charitable Giving; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Entrepreneurship; Internet and the Web; Health; Business Model; Sales; Human Resources; Health Industry; United States
- April 2014
- Article
Botsourcing and Outsourcing: Robot, British, Chinese, and German Workers Are for Thinking—Not Feeling—Jobs
By: Adam Waytz and Michael I. Norton
Technological innovations have produced robots capable of jobs that, until recently, only humans could perform. The present research explores the psychology of "botsourcing"—the replacement of human jobs by robots—while examining how understanding botsourcing can... View Details
- April 2014
- Article
The Emergence of 'Us and Them' in 80 Lines of Code: Modeling Group Genesis in Homogeneous Populations
By: Kurt Gray, David G. Rand, Eyal Ert, Kevin Lewis, Steve Hershman and Michael I. Norton
Psychological explanations of group genesis often require population heterogeneity in identity or other characteristics, whether deep (e.g., religion) or superficial (e.g., eye color). We use game-theoretical agent-based models to explore group genesis in homogeneous... View Details
Keywords: Groups and Teams
- February 2014
- Article
'Last-place Aversion': Evidence and Redistributive Implications
By: Ilyana Kuziemko, Ryan W. Buell, Taly Reich and Michael Norton
We present evidence from laboratory experiments showing that individuals are "last-place averse." Participants choose gambles with the potential to move them out of last place that they reject when randomly placed in other parts of the distribution. In... View Details
- Article
Give What You Get: Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus Apella) and 4-Year-Old Children Pay Forward Positive and Negative Outcomes to Conspecifics.
By: Kristin L. Leimgruber, Adrian F. Ward, Jane Widness, Michael I. Norton, Kristina R. Olson, Kurt Gray and Laurie R. Santos
The breadth of human generosity is unparalleled in the natural world, and much research has explored the mechanisms underlying and motivating human prosocial behavior. Recent work has focused on the spread of prosocial behavior within groups through paying-it-forward,... View Details
- January 2014
- Technical Note
Learning From Extreme Consumers
By: Jill Avery and Michael Norton
Traditional market research methods focus on understanding the average experiences of average consumers. This focus leads to gaps in our knowledge of consumer behavior and often fails to uncover insights that can drive revolutionary, rather than evolutionary... View Details
- 2014
- Article
Children Develop a Veil of Fairness
By: Alex Shaw, Natalia Montinari, Marco Piovesan, Kristina Olson, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton
Previous research suggests that children develop an increasing concern with fairness over the course of development. Research with adults suggests that the concern with fairness has at least two distinct components: a desire to be fair and a desire to signal to others... View Details
- 2014
- Article
Paying It Forward: Generalized Reciprocity and the Limits of Generosity
By: Kurt Gray, Adrian F. Ward and Michael I. Norton
When people are the victims of greed or recipients of generosity, their first impulse is often to pay back that behavior in kind. What happens when people cannot reciprocate, but instead have the chance to be cruel or kind to someone entirely different—to pay it... View Details
- 2014
- Article
Prosocial Spending and Happiness: Using Money to Benefit Others Pays Off
By: Elizabeth W. Dunn, Lara B. Aknin and Michael I. Norton
While a great deal of research has shown that people with more money are somewhat happier
than people with less money, our research demonstrates that how people spend their money also matters for their happiness. In particular, both correlational and... View Details
- 2014
- Article
Rituals Alleviate Grieving for Loved Ones, Lovers, and Lotteries
By: Michael I. Norton and Francesca Gino
Three experiments explored the impact of mourning rituals after losses—of loved ones, lovers, and lotteries—on mitigating grief. Participants who were directed to reflect on past rituals or who were assigned to complete novel rituals after experiencing losses reported... View Details