Publications

September 2019
Article

The Self-Presentational Consequences of Upholding One's Stance in Spite of the Evidence

By: Leslie John, Martha Jeong, Francesca Gino and Laura Huang

Five studies explore the self-presentational consequences of refusing to “back down” – that is, upholding a stance despite evidence of its inaccuracy. Using data from an entrepreneurial pitch competition, Study 1 shows that entrepreneurs tend not to back down even... View Details

Keywords: Self-presentation; Belief Perseverance; Judgment; Confidence; Persuasion; Personal Characteristics; Behavior; Perception; Decision Making; Outcome or Result

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

July 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Case

ABRY Fund V

By: Nabil N. El-Hage, Richard S. Ruback and Leslie Pierson

In January 2006, Andrew Banks and Royce Yudkoff were considering raising a 5th fund for their media-focused private equity firm, ABRY Partners. ABRY had a strong track record that the co-founders attributed to their group's deep knowledge of the media industry and... View Details

Keywords: Cooperative Ownership; Venture Capital; Customer Relationship Management; Asset Management; Private Equity; Judgments; Competitive Strategy; Media; Corporate Finance; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Financial Services Industry

Educators

Purchase

23 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Ideas and Research: May 23, 2017

in press Journal of Experimental Psychology: General Pseudo-Set Framing By: Barasz, Kate, Leslie John, Elizabeth A. Keenan, and Michael I. Norton Abstract—Pseudo-set framing—arbitrarily grouping items or tasks together as part of an... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

13 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

Ignore This Advice at Your Own Peril

co-written by HBS doctoral candidate Hayley Blunden, Harvard University post-doctoral fellow Jennifer M. Logg, and HBS professors Alison Wood Brooks, Leslie K. John, and Francesca Gino. “In asking a co-worker for advice, you have this... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

26 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Corporate Field Researchers Share Tricks of the Trade

her rationale for taking her research to the field. "I didn't believe and still don't believe that I could address these questions outside of a company context," she said. "Where else could I track creativity in the wild?" Leslie Perlow,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Article

Does 'Liking' Lead to Loving? The Impact of Joining a Brand's Social Network on Marketing Outcomes

By: Leslie K. John, Oliver Emrich, Sunil Gupta and Michael I. Norton

Does “liking” a brand on Facebook cause a person to view it more favorably? Or is “liking” simply a symptom of being fond of a brand? We disentangle these possibilities and find evidence for the latter: brand attitudes and purchasing are predicted by consumers’... View Details

Keywords: Brands; Marketing Effectiveness; Brand Evaluation; Peer Influence; Brands and Branding; Social and Collaborative Networks; Social Media

December 2022
Article

Fostering Perceptions of Authenticity via Sensitive Self-Disclosure

By: Li Jiang, Leslie K. John, Reihane Boghrati and Maryam Kouchaki

Leaders’ perceived authenticity—the sense that leaders are acting in accordance with their “true self”—is associated with positive outcomes for both employees and organizations alike. How might leaders foster this impression? We show that sensitive self-disclosure, in... View Details

Keywords: Authenticity; Weaknesses; Self-disclosure; Leaders; Impression Management; Leadership Style; Motivation and Incentives

November 2019
Article

Procedural Justice and the Risks of Consumer Voting

By: Tami Kim, Leslie John, Todd Rogers and Michael I. Norton

Firms are increasingly giving consumers the vote. Eight studies demonstrate that when firms empower consumers to vote, consumers infer a series of implicit promises—even in the absence of explicit promises. We identify three implicit promises to which consumers react... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Empowerment; Procedural Justice; Promises; Customer Relationship Management; Voting; Perception; Fairness; Risk Management

13 Mar 2018
First Look

March 13, 2018

Seeker Beware: The Relational Costs of Advice-Seeker Decisions By: Blunden, Hayley, Jennifer M. Logg, Alison Wood Brooks, Leslie John, and Francesca Gino Abstract—Prior advice research has focused on understanding when and why people rely... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

25 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 25

new strategy. Purchase this note:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/908416-PDF-ENG Toby Johnson (A): Leading After School Boris Groysberg, Leslie Danford, Amy Lodge, and Tereh SaylesHarvard Business School Case 410-103 After completing... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

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

2021
Working Paper

Studying the U.S.-Based Portfolio Companies of U.S. Impact Investors

By: M. Diane Burton, Gurveen Chadha, Shawn A. Cole, Abhishek Dev, Christina Jarymowycz, Leslie Jeng, Laura Kelley, Josh Lerner, Jaime R. Diaz Palacios, Yue (Cynthia) Xu and T. Robert Zochowski

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the reliance on market-based solutions to social and environmental problems around the world (Barman 2016; Horvath and Powell 2020). The growth of impact investing is a vivid example of this trend and, although there have... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Impact Portfolio Companies; Investment; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Investment Portfolio; Business Ventures; Analytics and Data Science; Performance; United States

02 Feb 2016
First Look

February 2, 2016

for rigorous accounting research. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50473 forthcoming Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Hiding Personal Information Reveals the Worst By: John, View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2022
Article

The Bulletproof Glass Effect: Unintended Consequences of Privacy Notices

By: Aaron R. Brough, David A. Norton, Shannon L. Sciarappa and Leslie K. John

Drawing from a content analysis of publicly traded companies’ privacy notices, a survey of managers, a field study, and five online experiments, this research investigates how consumers respond to privacy notices. A privacy notice, by placing legally enforceable limits... View Details

Keywords: Choice; Purchase Intent; Privacy; Privacy Notices; Warnings; Assurances; Information Disclosure; Trust; Consumer Behavior; Spending; Decisions; Information; Communication

May 10, 2019
Article

How Asking Multiple People for Advice Can Backfire

By: Hayley Blunden, Jennifer M. Logg, Alison Wood Brooks, Leslie John and Francesca Gino

14 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 14, 2015

In press Journal of Experimental Psychology: General Hormones and Ethics: Understanding the Biological Basis of Unethical Conduct By: Lee, Jooa Julia, Francesca Gino, Ellie Shuo Jin, Leslie K. Rice, and Robert A. Josephs... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: February 14

into account the role of contextual features. We conclude with a discussion of key themes, unresolved issues, and promising research directions. Effects of Description of Options on Parental Perinatal Decision-Making Authors:Marlyse F. Haward, View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

May, 2019
Article

Who Would You Like to Work With?: Use of Individual Characteristics and Social Networks in Team Formation Systems

By: Diego Gomez-Zara, Matthew Paras, Marlon Twyman, Jacqueline N. Lane, Leslie A. DeChurch and Noshir Contractor

People and organizations are increasingly using online platforms to assemble teams. In response, HCI researchers have theorized frameworks and created systems to support team assembly. However, little is known about how users search for and choose teammates on these... View Details

Keywords: Team Formation; Groups and Teams; Recruitment; Networks; Diversity