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  • Research Summary

Choice Amnesia: Motivated Forgetting of Difficult Choices

Imagine having to choose between your two favorite flavors of ice cream, chocolate and mint chip. Previous work suggests that whichever option you pick (say, chocolate) will become even more appealing after your decision, and the rejected option (mint chip) will get... View Details
  • 9 AM – 10 AM EDT, 14 Oct 2015
  • Webinars: Trending@HBS

Why Smart People Won't Change

Many people with a high need for achievement find the process of individual change very difficult. Some professionals resign themselves to organizational, personal, and life situations that are miserable or where they feel caught. Professor Thomas DeLong discusses... View Details
  • 27 Apr 2018
  • Working Paper Summaries

Is Overconfidence a Motivated Bias? Experimental Evidence

Keywords: by Jennifer M. Logg, Uriel Haran, and Don A. Moore
  • 06 Jul 2015
  • Research & Ideas

Money and Quotas Motivate the Sales Force Best

European sales managers whether the results would translate to their area or industry. "My answer is basically yes. The study was conducted in India because that was the specific stage we chose, and it happened to be a firm that wanted to collaborate with us," he says.... View Details
Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Retail
  • 2009
  • Working Paper

Dishonest Deed, Clear Conscience: Self-Preservation through Moral Disengagement and Motivated Forgetting

By: Lisa L. Shu, Francesca Gino and Max H. Bazerman
People routinely engage in dishonest acts without feeling guilty about their behavior. When and why does this occur? Across four studies, people justified their dishonest deeds through moral disengagement and exhibited motivated forgetting of information that might... View Details
Keywords: Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Behavior
Related
  • 25 Apr 2012
  • News

What Doesn't Motivate Creativity Can Kill It

  • 26 Feb 2019
  • Blog Post

Forget Cash. Here Are Better Ways to Motivate Employees

what they do and appreciation for their jobs, rather than feeling extrinsically motivated by cash alone.” If you give cash, include a meaningful note For many employees, particularly younger generations, a job is not just a paycheck;... View Details
Keywords: All Industries
  • 19 Jul 2017
  • Research & Ideas

Why Government 'Nudges' Motivate Good Citizen Behavior

A tiny nudge can motivate big change. (Source: dziewul) Most governments aren’t subtle when they want citizens to do something. The United States spends close to $1 billion annually on advertising--trying to convince citizens to do... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
  • January 2013
  • Article

'I'll Have One of Each': How Separating Rewards into (Meaningless) Categories Increases Motivation

By: F. Gino and S. Wiltermuth
We propose that separating rewards into categories can increase motivation, even when those categories are meaningless. Across six experiments, people were more motivated to obtain one reward from one category and another reward from another category than they were to... View Details
Keywords: Motivation and Incentives
Related
  • July 2002 (Revised January 2003)
  • Case

Harrah's Entertainment, Inc: Rewarding Our People

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Vineeta Vijayaraghavan
Marilyn Winn, head of human resources at Harrah's Entertainment, must make a recommendation to the company's president and CEO about whether the existing bonus payout program is effective at motivating employees or whether it should be revised and/or replaced. A recent... View Details
Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Human Capital; Management Style; Motivation and Incentives; Alignment; Entertainment and Recreation Industry
Related
  • 09 Feb 2015
  • Research & Ideas

Professional Networking Makes People Feel Dirty

they may not become high-power employees—who no longer feel dirty when they network. So short of showering in Listerine, what's a low-power player to do? “We are looking at the motives people have in their... View Details
Keywords: by Carmen Nobel
  • 04 Sep 2019
  • Research & Ideas

'I Know Why You Voted for Trump' and Other Motivation Misperceptions

to choose the ecofriendly bulb, but they also reported that price was the attribute they actually cared about most. Next, another group of participants simply observed the choice that other people made: the selection of the ecofriendly... View Details
Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman
  • 24 Jul 2017
  • Research & Ideas

People Have an Irrational Need to Complete 'Sets' of Things

Credit:  Martin Barraud Here’s a tip for persuading people to finish more tasks, buy more products, or donate more money: Simply present assignments, requests, or items as arbitrary sets, rather than as individual units. New research... View Details
Keywords: by Carmen Nobel
  • 06 Jan 2020
  • Research & Ideas

Motivate Your High Performers to Share Their Knowledge

barriers tend to get in the way: lower-performing employees are too reticent to ask for help, or higher-performing employees are reluctant to give it. “This suggests that performance is more malleable and can be changed if you give people... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
  • 13 Dec 2017
  • News

Skydeck Live: What Really Motivates American Voters?

working to understand their motivations and tracking their reactions to cultural and political events. Her unique insights have made her a regular on CNN and a fixture on the pages of the Boston Globe. And Hessan and I discussed her... View Details
  • Article

The Conversational Circumplex: Identifying, Prioritizing, and Pursuing Informational and Relational Motives in Conversation

By: Michael Yeomans, Maurice E. Schweitzer and Alison Wood Brooks
The meaning of success in conversation depends on people’s goals. Often, individuals pursue multiple goals simultaneously, such as establishing shared understanding, making a favorable impression, and persuading a conversation partner. In this article, we introduce a... View Details
Keywords: Conversation; Goal Pursuit; Communication; Interpersonal Communication; Goals and Objectives; Framework
Related
  • 28 Jan 2019
  • Research & Ideas

Forget Cash. Here Are Better Ways to Motivate Employees

what they do and appreciation for their jobs, rather than feeling extrinsically motivated by cash alone.” If you give cash, include a meaningful note For many employees, particularly younger generations, a job is not just a paycheck;... View Details
Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman
  • 17 Jul 2023
  • Research & Ideas

Money Isn’t Everything: The Dos and Don’ts of Motivating Employees

In a post-pandemic business world of hybrid work and quiet quitting, companies must rethink how they motivate employees. Good incentive plans and reward structures require a careful analysis of a company’s objectives, culture, and... View Details
Keywords: by Avery Forman
  • 07 Dec 2011
  • Research & Ideas

Are Creative People More Dishonest?

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. In "The Dark Side of Creativity: Original Thinkers Can Be More Dishonest," the authors report that inherently creative people tend to cheat more than noncreative types. Furthermore,... View Details
Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising
  • 24 Jul 2019
  • Lessons from the Classroom

Can These Business Students Motivate Londoners to Do the Right Thing?

out a new letter with an extra line, letting people know that their neighbors were ponying up, implying that they should, too: “We are writing to inform you that we have still not received your tax payment. By now, nine out of 10 View Details
Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman