Rationalization - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Dec 2009
News

Faculty Research Online

“I Read Playboy for the Articles”: Justifying and Rationalizing Questionable Preferences When people behave in ways that might appear selfish, prejudiced, or perverted, they employ a host of strategies designed to justify questionable... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

07 Aug 2009
What Do You Think?

Why Can’t Americans Get Health Care Right?

provided excellent comparative data of the kind that we have seen all too little in the public debate on the matter. And nearly everyone admirably avoided the political rhetoric that has clouded rational thought about a truly complex... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

Portrait Project

Joan Cheng

than try really hard and only come close. I was terrified of getting my hopes up and failing—defined narrowly as not being the very best, number one. So for many years I pushed hard only for those things where my success was ensured. At the very least, I'd View Details

31 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

When Not to Trust Your Gut

article explores why we often think irrationally—and why, even when the stakes are high and mistakes are costly, we sometimes are unable to overcome our psychological biases. We begin with an overview of intuition and rationality in... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman & Deepak Malhotra

24 Aug 2016
Research & Ideas

Behavioral Economists Can Make You a Healthier Consumer and Smarter Marketer

Click Here If people made purely rational decisions, life might be much easier for marketers in selling products and services. But few of us are that rational. Instead, our decisions are based on illogical biases such as loss aversion and... View Details

Keywords: by Amelia Kunhardt

Web

Bibliography - The Human Factor - – Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Historical Collections

Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration ,” Harvard Library Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 2. Cambridge: Harvard University Library, 1981. Barnard, Chester Irving. The Functions of the Executive. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968. Biggs, Lindy. The... View Details

Samuel F. Hinkle

Starting as a chemist with Hershey, Hinkle played a prominent role in the development of Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, Krackel, Mr. Goodbar and fortified chocolate bars issued as K, C, and D rations during World War II. As CEO, Hinkle put... View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

09 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

Excerpt: ’Fortune Tellers’

"disenchantment of the world," as scientific rationality displaced older, magical, and "irrational" ways of understanding. Indeed, the forecasters profiled in this book certainly saw themselves as systematic empiricists and logicians who... View Details

Keywords: by Walter A. Friedman

19 Dec 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

New Year, New Habits

bad behavior causes memories of those acts to gradually become less clear—a phenomenon they call “unethical amnesia.” Research Papers Habit Formation and Rational Addiction: A Field Experiment in Handwashing This study in rural West... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

27 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

The ‘Promotion’ That Makes You Feel Bad

Rationalization The American workers were sympathetic yet relieved that the situation wasn't reversed, with the Americans having to learn Japanese. They also engaged in what Neeley calls status rationalization—expressing the feeling that... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

01 Dec 2011
What Do You Think?

Thinking Slow: An Argument for Bureaucracy?

Kahneman's diagnosis, but not his remedy Whether the decision is to be made by an individual, a team, or 'the bureaucracy', I would say that all would be well served by the discipline imposed by adherence to a rational process (which)... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

06 Dec 2016
First Look

December 6, 2016

uncertainty into the consumer's relative product valuations since she is unable to observe the entire catalog of products that the retailer will sell that season. Rationally acting consumers may respond to this additional uncertainty by... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Mar 2009
News

Honoring HBS’s Organization Men

sole influence was rational self-interest. “We have acquisitive and social instincts. It’s not all or nothing, it’s both — that’s what makes us such interesting creatures.” Related Links A Modern-Day Classic View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

Portrait Project

Sabina Robinov

"right," the rational thing to do. As a fifteen year old, I was already thinking about the long term and my ability to take care of my family. Getting A grades became my highest priority. Choosing my career path was a matter of... View Details

01 Dec 2013
News

Alumni News | Bookshelf: A Manager's Responsibility in the 21st Century

rational decisions whose results are understood to be part of society. What is good for General Motors, they recognize, is not necessarily good for society. —Sean Silverthorne View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne; oil spill; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

31 Oct 2007
HBS Case

Climate Change Puts Heat on GMs

students tend to take the rational approach that it's fine to spend $100 on insulating a building if that brings down the energy bill by $100. "The only problem is that if an NGO or activist organization like Greenpeace wants to... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

Web

Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise - Course Catalog

seemingly rational ways making logical business decisions, often find their firms in trouble. The course seeks to develop insights into why these things happened and how we should think about them in our future careers. The original... View Details

07 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 7

people intuitively discount the future to a greater degree than can be rationally defended. Second, positive illusions lead us to conclude that energy problems do not exist or are not severe enough to merit action. Third, we interpret... View Details