Publications

November 2004 (Revised April 2010)
Module Note

Module II: Moral Reasoning Class Summaries

By: Sandra J. Sucher

Presents class summaries for the The Moral Leader course. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Moral Sensibility; Leadership; Cognition and Thinking

1998
Article

Looking Inside the Fishbowl of Creativity: Verbal and Behavioral Predictors of Creative Performance

By: J. Ruscio, D. M. Whitney and T. M. Amabile

This study set out to identify specific task behaviors that predict observable product creativity in three domains and to identify which of those behaviors mediate the well-established link between intrinsic motivation and creativity. One-hundred fifty-one... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Cognition and Thinking; Behavior

10 Nov 2020
News

Learning to Fight

Eventually, he found a treatment trial at the Mayo Clinic that was testing a new combination of chemotherapy and high-dose radiation. Slowly, Susan’s tumor began to shrink, until there was nothing left but scar tissue. Although she would continue to struggle with the... View Details

Keywords: April White

04 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

Best of HBS Working Knowledge 2009

creativity of each individual. The Devil Wears Prada? Effects of Exposure to Luxury Goods on Cognition and Decision Making Download the PDF. Gandhi once wrote that "a certain degree of physical harmony and comfort is necessary, but... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

2016
Working Paper

The Empirical Economics of Online Attention

By: Andre Boik, Shane Greenstein and Jeffrey Prince

In several markets, firms compete not for consumer expenditure but instead for consumer attention. We model and characterize how households allocate their scarce attention in arguably the largest market for attention: the Internet. Our characterization of household... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Competition; Behavior; Resource Allocation; Household; Cognition and Thinking

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March 2001
Case

FIRST: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology

By: William A. Sahlman

Describes some strategic and financial issues confronting the founder and executive director of a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving awareness of and interest in science and technology among elementary and high school students. The organization sponsors... View Details

Keywords: Middle School Education; Finance; Nonprofit Organizations; Cognition and Thinking; Strategy; Technology

July 1994
Background Note

Retail Expansion Strategies

By: David E. Bell

Describes issues that should be considered by a retailer who is thinking of expanding the number of stores from one or two to many. View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Cognition and Thinking; Expansion; Retail Industry

Educators

Article

When Dreaming Is Believing: The (Motivated) Interpretation of Dreams

By: Carey K. Morewedge and Michael I. Norton

This research investigated laypeople's interpretation of their dreams. Participants from both Eastern and Western cultures believed that dreams contain hidden truths (Study 1) and considered dreams to provide more meaningful information about the world than similar... View Details

Keywords: Anchoring; Attribution; Dreams; Motivated Reasoning; Unconscious Thought; Communication Intention and Meaning; Judgments; Values and Beliefs; Information; Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Motivation and Incentives

2008
Working Paper

Nameless + Harmless = Blameless: When Seemingly Irrelevant Factors Influence Judgment of (Un)ethical Behavior

By: Francesca Gino, Lisa L. Shu and Max H. Bazerman

People often make judgments about the ethicality of others' behaviors and then decide how harshly to punish such behaviors. When they make these judgments and decisions, sometimes the victims of the unethical behavior are identifiable, and sometimes they are not. In... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Ethics; Law; Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Prejudice and Bias

2024
Working Paper

How Inflation Expectations De-Anchor: The Role of Selective Memory Cues

By: Nicola Gennaioli, Marta Leva, Raphael Schoenle and Andrei Shleifer

In a model of memory and selective recall, household inflation expectations remain rigid when inflation is anchored but exhibit sharp instability during inflation surges, as similarity prompts retrieval of forgotten high-inflation experiences. Using data from the New... View Details

Keywords: Cognition and Thinking; Inflation and Deflation; Personal Finance

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06 Jul 2009
What Do You Think?

Are You Ready to Manage in an Irrational World?

Summing Up What's rational in the world of management? Judging from replies to the question, "Are you ready to manage in an irrational world?," respondents to this column are ready. But they also conclude that the question is much more complex and subtle than... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

Web

2016 Symposium - Race, Gender & Equity

earned her doctorate in linguistics and cognitive science from the University of Pennsylvania and has published original research on gender bias in performance reviews and conversational interruptions in the workplace. Her work has... View Details

23 Mar 2021
Book

Succeeding in the New Work-from-Anywhere World

and resources. Based on the work of pioneering sociologist Richard Hackman, regularly relaunching can increase the likelihood of success of a team by 30 percent or more. Blanding: You make a distinction between cognitive trust and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

26 Nov 2013
First Look

First Look: November 26

robots-while examining how understanding botsourcing can inform the psychology of outsourcing-the replacement of jobs in one country by humans from other countries. We test four related hypotheses across six experiments: (1) Given people's lay theories about the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

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

Keywords: Thoughtfulness; Liking; Social Influence; Decisions; Attitudes; Cognition and Thinking; Power and Influence

2009
Article

Implicit Affect in Organizations

By: Sigal G. Barsade, Lakshmi Ramarajan and Drew Westen

Our goal is to integrate the construct of implicit affect—affective processes activated or processed outside of conscious awareness that influence ongoing thought, behavior, and conscious emotional experience—into the field of organizational behavior. We begin by... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Framework; Organizational Culture; Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Emotions; Motivation and Incentives; Perspective

July 2019
Article

'Forward Flow': A New Measure to Quantify Free Thought and Predict Creativity

By: Kurt Gray, Stephen Anderson, Eric Evan Chen, John Michael Kelly, Michael S. Christian, John Patrick, Laura Huang, Yoed N. Kenett and Kevin Lewis

When the human mind is free to roam, its subjective experience is characterized by a continuously evolving stream of thought. Although there is a technique that captures people’s streams of free thought—free association—its utility for scientific research is undermined... View Details

Keywords: Cognition and Thinking; Creativity; Forecasting and Prediction

1999
Article

Effects of Instructional Style on Problem-Solving Creativity

By: A. M. Ruscio and T. M. Amabile

This study sought to determine the impact of 2 differing instructional approaches on creative problem-solving performance. Eighty-two college students completed a novel structure-building task after receiving algorithmic instruction (providing a rote, step-by-step... View Details

Keywords: Training; Creativity; Cognition and Thinking; Performance; Learning

2007
Working Paper

I'll Have the Ice Cream Soon and the Vegetables Later: A Study of Online Grocery Purchases and Order Lead Time

By: Katherine L. Milkman, Todd Rogers and Max H. Bazerman

How do decisions made for tomorrow or two days in the future differ from decisions made for several days in the future? We use data from an online grocer to address this question. In general, we find that as the delay between order completion and delivery increases,... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Food; Decision Choices and Conditions; Conflict and Resolution; Emotions; Cognition and Thinking; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry