Publications

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March 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Business of Life, The

By: Debora L. Spar

Every day, around the world, babies and children are being sold. Frequently, these transactions appear to be above or beyond the market. Orphaned children are never "sold"--they are only "matched" with their "forever families." Eggs are "donated," and surrogate mothers... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Markets; Social Issues; Family and Family Relationships

2021
Working Paper

Does Observability Amplify Sensitivity to Moral Frames? Evaluating a Reputation-Based Account of Moral Preferences

By: Valerio Capraro, Jillian J. Jordan and Ben Tappin

A growing body of work suggests that people are sensitive to moral framing in economic games involving prosociality, suggesting that people hold moral preferences for doing the “right thing”. What gives rise to these preferences? Here, we evaluate the explanatory power... View Details

Keywords: Moral Preferences; Moral Frames; Observability; Trustworthiness; Trust Game; Trade-off Game; Moral Sensibility; Reputation; Behavior; Trust

16 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Does Competition Make Us More Creative?

Competition can bring out the best in salespeople, athletes, and participants in hot dog eating contests—but can it make employees more creative? A recent working paper by Daniel P. Gross finds that competition can motivate creative types... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising

30 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 30, 2019

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=56032 in press Cognition I Know Why You Voted for Trump: (Over)inferring Motives Based on Choice By: Barasz, Kate, Tami Kim, and Ioannis Evangelidis Abstract—People often speculate about why... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Research Summary

Contentment with Professor Roy Chua

Middle-Way is one of the core principles of Buddhism-it promotes a moderate lifestyle that is self-sufficient and void of excesses or extremes in any life domains. People with this type of lifestyle live a "content" life. However, could life... View Details

February 9, 2024
Article

Addressing Climate Change with Behavioral Science: A Global Intervention Tournament in 63 Countries

By: Madalina Vlasceanu, Kimberly C. Doell, Joseph B. Bak-Coleman, Boryana Todorova, Michael M. Berkebile-Weinberg, Amit Goldenberg, Eric Shuman and et al.

Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Policy; Knowledge Sharing; Values and Beliefs

Research Summary

Overview

Professor Myers studies the ways people learn from their own—and others’—experiences at work, with a particular emphasis on learning in health care organizations and emergency medical contexts. Though his interest is in individual-level learning, he focuses in... View Details

Keywords: Learning And Development; Learning Organizations; Learning By Doing; Health Care Industry; Innovation; Identity Construction; Medical Error; Knowledge Development; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Work; Learning; Leadership Development; Knowledge Management; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Health Industry; United States; Singapore; Asia

September 2022
Article

The Limits of Inconspicuous Incentives

By: Leslie K. John, Hayley Blunden, Katherine Milkman, Luca Foschini and Bradford Tuckfield

Managers and policymakers regularly rely on incentives to encourage valued behaviors. While incentives are often successful, there are also notable and surprising examples of their ineffectiveness. Why? We propose a contributing factor may be that they are not... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Behavior

April 2020
Article

Digital Emotion Contagion

By: Amit Goldenberg and James J. Gross

People spend considerable time on digital media, and during this time they are often exposed to others’ emotion expressions. This exposure can lead their own emotion expressions to become more like others’ emotion expressions, a process we refer to as digital emotion... View Details

Keywords: Emotion; Emotion Contagion; Digital Media; Emotions; Media; Internet and the Web; Measurement and Metrics; Social Media

31 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: Jan. 31

(forthcoming) Abstract We explore the existence and underlying neural mechanism of a new norm endorsed by both black and white Americans for managing interracial interactions: "racial paralysis," the tendency to opt out of decisions involving members of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne & Carmen Nobel

Article

Does Observability Amplify Sensitivity to Moral Frames? Evaluating a Reputation-Based Account of Moral Preferences

By: Valerio Capraro, Jillian J. Jordan and Ben Tappin

A growing body of work suggests that people are sensitive to moral framing in economic games involving prosociality, suggesting that people hold moral preferences for doing the “right thing”. What gives rise to these preferences? Here, we evaluate the explanatory power... View Details

Keywords: Moral Preferences; Moral Frames; Observability; Trustworthiness; Trust Game; Trade-off Game; Moral Sensibility; Reputation; Behavior; Trust

22 Apr 2021
Blog Post

Launching the Women in Tech Initiative at HBS

This past year the HBS Tech Club launched a new group called the HBS Women in Tech Initiative. The mission of this group is to connect women who are interested in the tech industry and to empower women with the skills, confidence, and network to pursue a meaningful... View Details

24 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Career Advice for Minorities and Women: Sharing Your Identity Can Open Doors

at a time when many marginalized groups are calling for more equitable treatment in the workplace. “A lot of people from historically marginalized groups have experienced marginalization and discrimination, and that makes us wary to put... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

July 2009
Journal Article

Dirty Work, Clean Hands: The Moral Psychology of Indirect Agency

By: Neeru Paharia, Karim Kassam, Joshua Greene and Max Bazerman

When powerful people cause harm, they often do so indirectly through other people. Are harmful actions carried out through others evaluated less negatively than harmful actions carried out directly? Four experiments examine the moral psychology of indirect agency.... View Details

Keywords: Judgments; Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence

2008
Working Paper

Dirty Work, Clean Hands: The Moral Psychology of Indirect Agency

By: Neeru Paharia, Karim S. Kassam, Joshua D. Greene and Max H. Bazerman

When powerful people cause harm, they often do so indirectly through other people. Are harmful actions carried out through others evaluated less negatively than harmful actions carried out directly? Four experiments examine the moral psychology of indirect agency.... View Details

Keywords: Judgments; Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence

2022
Article

Rapid Growth of Remote Patient Monitoring Is Driven by a Small Number of Primary Care Providers

By: Mitchell Tang, Ateev Mehrotra and Ariel Dora Stern

Growing enthusiasm for remote patient monitoring has been motivated by the hope that it can improve care for patients with poorly controlled chronic illness. In a national commercially insured population in the U.S., we found that billing for remote patient monitoring... View Details

Keywords: Remote Monitoring; Medical Billing; Health Care Costs; Telehealth; Diabetes; Chronic Disease; Insurance Claims; Diseases; Primary Care Providers; COVID-19 Pandemic; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Cost; Health Industry; United States