Publications

Article

Naturals and Strivers: Preferences and Beliefs about Sources of Achievement

By: Chia-Jung Tsay and Mahzarin R. Banaji

To understand how talent and achievement are perceived, three experiments compared the assessments of "naturals" and "strivers." Professional musicians learned about two pianists, equal in achievement but who varied in the source of achievement: the "natural" with... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Perception; Judgments; Success; Competency and Skills

March 2008
Article

Functional Imaging of Decision Conflict

By: J. B. Pochon, Jason Riis, A. Sanfey, L. Nystrom and J. D. Cohen

Decision conflict occurs when people feel uncertain as to which option to choose from a set of similarly attractive (or unattractive) options, with many studies demonstrating that this conflict can lead to suboptimal decision making. In this article, we investigate the... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Judgments; Risk and Uncertainty; Science; Conflict and Resolution; Perception

05 Feb 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Stereotypes and Belief Updating

Keywords: by Katherine B. Coffman, Manuela Collis, and Leena Kulkarni

03 Nov 2020
News

One Paramount Priority

us—but that our perceptions of the other side are tearing us apart, she writes in an election-day opinion column in the Boston Globe. An entrepreneur, author, and founder and chair of the consumer collaboration agency C Space, Hessan... View Details

Keywords: Government

July 2019
Article

The Gravitational Pull of Expressing Passion: When and How Expressing Passion Elicits Status Conferral and Support from Others

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Christopher To, Shira Agasi, Stéphane Côté and Adam D. Galinsky

Prior research attributes the positive effects of passion on professional success to intrapersonal characteristics. We propose that interpersonal processes are also critical because observers confer status on and support those who express passion. These interpersonal... View Details

Keywords: Passion; Admiration; Support; Emotions; Communication; Perception; Status and Position; Success; Situation or Environment; Competition

Register to Read

2025
Working Paper

A Preference for Revision Absent Improvement

By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Leslie K. John, Ed O’Brien and Michael I. Norton

People regularly encounter revised stimuli (e.g., revised versions of products, new editions of books, tweaked recipes, and technological updates). In principle, a world of constant revision should benefit people by affording them the most up-to-date offerings. In... View Details

Keywords: Product Change; Versioning; Expectancy Effects; Heuristics; Intuitive Processing; Product Marketing; Change; Perception; Consumer Behavior

SSRN

2024
Working Paper

The Wade Test: Generative AI and CEO Communication

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Bart S. Vanneste and Amirhossein Zohrehvand

Can generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) transform the role of the CEO? This study investigates whether Gen-AI can mimic a human CEO and whether employees display aversion to Gen-AI communication. We present a framework of Gen-AI aversion that distinguishes... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; AI and Machine Learning; Perception; Communication

SSRN

Web

Business of Ideas - Course Catalog

recent memory, future business leaders must understand how ideas shape individual and public perceptions of the world. This course will introduce students to the creation, monetization, and distribution of ideas, how individuals consume... View Details

01 Dec 2020
News

Up Your Time Affluence

here, Whillans offers straightforward strategies for gaining control over that most precious asset of all. Beware of time confetti. Our near-constant connection to technology leads to social media and email disruptions and “time... View Details

October 2022
Article

Underestimating Counterparts' Learning Goals Impairs Conflictual Conversations

By: Hanne K. Collins, Charles A. Dorison, Francesca Gino and Julia A. Minson

Given the many contexts in which people have difficulty engaging with views that disagree with their own— from political discussions to workplace conflicts—it is critical to understand how conflictual conversations can be improved. Whereas previous work has focused on... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Conflict and Resolution; Values and Beliefs; Learning; Perception

19 Jun 2013
Research & Ideas

Analyzing Institutions to Solve Big Problems

twenty-first century, social responsibility, social entrepreneurship and hybrid for-profit/nonprofit organizations, the transformation of work, globalization, collective action, and the recent financial... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel & Anna Secino

Web

Leading Race Work in Business Schools - Race, Gender & Equity

faculty member of the Wharton IDEAS lab (Identity, Diversity, Engagement, Affect, and Social Relationships), an affiliated faculty member of Wharton People Analytics, a Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics... View Details

July 2010
Article

Workplace Peers and Entrepreneurship

By: Ramana Nanda and Jesper B. Sorensen

We examine whether the likelihood of entrepreneurial activity is related to the prior career experiences of an individual's co-workers, using a unique matched employer-employee panel dataset. We argue that coworkers can increase the likelihood that an individual will... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Perception; Opportunities; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence

Forthcoming
Article

Consumer Choice and Corporate Bankruptcy

By: Samuel Antill and Megan Hunter

We estimate the indirect costs of corporate bankruptcy associated with lost customers. In incentivized experiments, randomly informing consumers about a firm’s Chapter 11 reorganization lowers their willingness to pay for the firm’s products by 17%-28%. Consumers worry... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Choice; Bankruptcy; Financial Distress; Structural Estimation; Experimental Economics; Hertz; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Perception; Consumer Behavior

December 2019
Article

Communicating with Warmth in Distributive Negotiations Is Surprisingly Counterproductive

By: M. Jeong, J. Minson, M. Yeomans and F. Gino

When entering into a negotiation, individuals have the choice to enact a variety of communication styles. We test the differential impact of being “warm and friendly” versus “tough and firm” in a distributive negotiation, when first offers are held constant and... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Style; Communication Strategy; Perception; Performance Effectiveness; Outcome or Result

01 Jun 2009
News

Dispatches from the Global Classroom

lessons or definitive answers. But somewhere in the two-day span we spend talking with villagers, sharing their food, and sleeping in their homes, perceptions shift. It’s one thing to read a newspaper article about the impact of... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Social Assistance; Social Assistance; Social Assistance; Social Assistance; Social Assistance; Social Assistance

17 Nov 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Equity Concerns Are Narrowly Framed

Keywords: by Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler

2021
Working Paper

Equity Concerns Are Narrowly Framed

By: Christine L Exley and Judd B. Kessler

Distributional decisions regularly involve multiple payoff components. In a series of experiments, we show that subjects frequently exhibit narrow equity concerns: individuals apply their fairness preferences narrowly, on a specific component of payoffs, rather... View Details

Keywords: Equity; Equality and Inequality; Fairness; Perception; Outcome or Result; Resource Allocation; Behavior

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