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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(661)
- People (1)
- News (88)
- Research (452)
- Events (13)
- Multimedia (1)
- Faculty Publications (249)
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- 2020
- Article
Subjective Semantic Surprise Resulting from Divided Attention Biases Evaluations of an Idea’s Creativity
By: Goran Calic, Nour El Shamy, Isaac Kinley, Scott Watter and Khaled Hassanein
The evaluation of an idea’s creativity constitutes an important step in successfully responding to an unexpected problem with a new solution. Yet, distractions compete for cognitive resources with the evaluation process and may change how individuals evaluate ideas. In... View Details
Calic, Goran, Nour El Shamy, Isaac Kinley, Scott Watter, and Khaled Hassanein. "Subjective Semantic Surprise Resulting from Divided Attention Biases Evaluations of an Idea’s Creativity." Scientific Reports 10 (2020).
- Article
Dirty Deeds Unwanted: The Use of Biased Memory Processes in the Context of Ethics
By: Maryam Kouchaki and Francesca Gino
Kouchaki, Maryam, and Francesca Gino. "Dirty Deeds Unwanted: The Use of Biased Memory Processes in the Context of Ethics." Special Issue on Morality and Ethics edited by Francesca Gino and Shaul Salvi. Current Opinion in Psychology 6 (December 2015): 82–86.
- Article
Choice Architects Reveal a Bias Toward Positivity and Certainty
By: David P. Daniels and Julian Zlatev
Biases influence important decisions, but little is known about whether and how individuals try to exploit others’ biases in strategic interactions. Choice architects—that is, people who present choices to others—must often decide between presenting choice sets with... View Details
Keywords: Nudges; Biases; Strategic Decision Making; Social Influence; Choice Architects; Choice Architecture; Reflection Effect; Certainty Effect; Loss Aversion; Decision Making; Risk and Uncertainty; Power and Influence
Daniels, David P., and Julian Zlatev. "Choice Architects Reveal a Bias Toward Positivity and Certainty." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 151 (March 2019): 132–149.
- Article
Missing the Near Miss: Recognizing Valuable Learning Opportunities in Radiation Oncology
By: Palak Kundu, Olivia Jung, Luca F. Valle, Amy C. Edmondson, Nzhde Agazaryan, John Hegde, Michael Steinberg and Ann Raldow
“Near miss” events are valuable low-cost learning opportunities in radiation oncology as they do not result in patient harm and are more pervasive than adverse events that do. Near misses vary depending on the presence of a latent error of behavior or process, and the... View Details
Kundu, Palak, Olivia Jung, Luca F. Valle, Amy C. Edmondson, Nzhde Agazaryan, John Hegde, Michael Steinberg, and Ann Raldow. "Missing the Near Miss: Recognizing Valuable Learning Opportunities in Radiation Oncology." Practical Radiation Oncology 11, no. 3 (May 2021): e256–e262.
- 2010
- Article
Fretting About Modest Risks Is a Mistake
By: Matthew Rabin and Max Bazerman
Managers often engage in risk-averse behavior, and economists, decision analysts, and managers treat risk aversion as a preference. In many cases, acting in a risk-averse manner is a mistake, but managers can correct this mistake with greater reflection. This article... View Details
Rabin, Matthew, and Max Bazerman. "Fretting About Modest Risks Is a Mistake." California Management Review 61, no. 3 (May 2019): 34–48.
- 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
Garcia-Rada, Ximena, Leslie K. John, Ed O’Brien, and Michael I. Norton. "A Preference for Revision Absent Improvement." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-087, February 2019. (Revised April 2025.)
- 03 Jun 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Memory and Representativeness
- February 2020
- Article
Using Charity Performance Metrics as an Excuse Not to Give
By: Christine L. Exley
There is an increasing pressure to give more wisely and effectively. There is, relatedly, an increasing focus on charity performance metrics. Via a series of experiments, this paper provides a caution to such a focus. While information on charity performance metrics... View Details
Keywords: Charitable Giving; Prosocial Behavior; Altruism; Excuses; Self-serving Biases; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Performance; Measurement and Metrics; Behavior
Exley, Christine L. "Using Charity Performance Metrics as an Excuse Not to Give." Management Science 66, no. 2 (February 2020): 553–563.
- February 2018
- Article
The Impact of a Surprise Donation Ask
By: Christine L. Exley and Ragan Petrie
Individuals frequently exploit "flexibility" built into decision environments to give less. They use uncertainty to justify options benefiting themselves over others, they avoid information that may encourage them to give, and they avoid the ask itself. In this paper,... View Details
Keywords: Charitable Giving; Prosocial Behavior; Self-serving Biases; Excuses; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Behavior
Exley, Christine L., and Ragan Petrie. "The Impact of a Surprise Donation Ask." Journal of Public Economics 158 (February 2018): 152–167.
- May 2012
- Case
Columbia's Final Mission (Abridged) (A)
By: Amy C. Edmondson and Kerry Herman
This case documents decision-making processes, organizational culture, and other contributors to NASA's failed Columbia mission in 2003. Addresses the question of how organizations should deal with "ambiguous threats" - weak signals of potential crisis - and explores... View Details
Keywords: Cognitive Biases; Teams; Organizational Learning; Ambiguous Threat; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Decision Making; Failure; Crisis Management; Aerospace Industry
Edmondson, Amy C., and Kerry Herman. "Columbia's Final Mission (Abridged) (A)." Harvard Business School Case 612-095, May 2012.
- October 2024
- Article
Sampling Bias in Entrepreneurial Experiments
By: Ruiqing Cao, Rembrand Koning and Ramana Nanda
Using data from a prominent online platform for launching new digital products, we document that ‘sampling bias’—defined as the difference between a startup’s target customer base and the actual sample on which early ‘beta tests’ are conducted—has a systematic and... View Details
Cao, Ruiqing, Rembrand Koning, and Ramana Nanda. "Sampling Bias in Entrepreneurial Experiments." Management Science 70, no. 10 (October 2024): 7283–7307.
- Research Summary
Consumer Response to Online Ratings and Recommendations
Jolie is currently conducting several laboratory and field experiments to assess the tendency of individuals to employ predictable heuristics in complex information aggregation tasks, thus leading to search and choice behavior that is suboptimal relative to the fully... View Details
- March 2020
- Article
The Role of Numbers in the Customer Journey
By: Shelle Santana, Manoj Thomas and Vicki Morwitz
At each stage in customers’ journeys, they encounter different types of numeric information that they process using different judgment strategies. Relevant numbers might include budgets, price, product attributes, product counts, product ratings, numbers in brand... View Details
Keywords: Numbers; Heuristics; Numerical Cognition; Pricing; Customer Journey; Information; Consumer Behavior
Santana, Shelle, Manoj Thomas, and Vicki Morwitz. "The Role of Numbers in the Customer Journey." Journal of Retailing 96, no. 1 (March 2020): 138–154.
- June 2022
- Article
The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Finance and Beyond
By: Josh Lerner and Amit Seru
Patents and citations are powerful tools for understanding innovation increasingly used in financial economics (and management research more broadly). Biases may result, however, from the interactions between the truncation of patents and citations and the changing... View Details
Lerner, Josh, and Amit Seru. "The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Finance and Beyond." Review of Financial Studies 35, no. 6 (June 2022): 2667–2704.
- November 2018
- Case
frog design
By: Srikant M. Datar and Caitlin N. Bowler
The case follows the genesis and development of Palo, a radical urban communications hub designed to replace payphone booths on Manhattan’s city streets, through a joint venture between frog design and a venture-backed firm LQD WiFi. The case explores the complexity of... View Details
Keywords: Innovation; Prototyping; User Experience Design; Design Heuristics; Telecommunications; Urban Systems; Communication Technology; Urban Scope; Innovation and Invention; Design; Product Development
Datar, Srikant M., and Caitlin N. Bowler. "frog design." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Case 118-707, November 2018.
- May 2012
- Supplement
Columbia's Final Mission (Abridged) (B)
By: Amy C. Edmondson and Kerry Herman
Keywords: Cognitive Biases; Teams; Organizational Learning; Ambiguous Threat; Risk and Uncertainty; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Corporate Disclosure; Groups and Teams; Decision Making; Organizational Culture; Public Administration Industry; Aerospace Industry
Edmondson, Amy C., and Kerry Herman. "Columbia's Final Mission (Abridged) (B) ." Harvard Business School Supplement 612-096, May 2012.
- 2017
- Working Paper
The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Corporate Finance and Beyond
By: Josh Lerner
Patents and citations are powerful tools for understanding innovative activity inside the firm and are increasingly used in corporate finance research. But due to the complexities of patent data collection and the changing spatial and industry composition of innovative... View Details
Lerner, Josh, and Amit Seru. "The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Corporate Finance and Beyond." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 18-042, November 2017.
- 2019
- Chapter
Behavioral Economics and Health-Care Markets
By: Amitabh Chandra, Benjamin Handel and Joshua Schwartzstein
This chapter summarizes research in behavioral health economics, focusing on insurance markets and product markets in health care. We argue that the prevalence of choice difficulties and biases leading to mistakes in these markets establish a special place for them in... View Details
Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Consumer Behavior; Economics; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Markets
Chandra, Amitabh, Benjamin Handel, and Joshua Schwartzstein. "Behavioral Economics and Health-Care Markets." Chap. 6 in Handbook of Behavioral Economics: Foundations and Applications 2, edited by B. Douglas Bernheim, Stefano DellaVigna, and David Laibson, 459–502. Amsterdam: Elsevier/North-Holland, 2019.
- 2019
- Working Paper
Relative Performance Transparency: Effects on Sustainable Choices
By: Ryan W. Buell, Shwetha Mariadassou and Yanchong Zheng
We study how transparency into the levels and changes of relative sustainability performance affects consumer choices. Our work considers two forms of transparency: process transparency, in which customers receive information about the company's sustainability... View Details
Keywords: Relative Performance Tranparency; Process Transparency; Customer Transparency; Levels; Changes; Reflectiveness; Self-serving Attribution Biases; Sustainability; Consumer Choice
Buell, Ryan W., Shwetha Mariadassou, and Yanchong Zheng. "Relative Performance Transparency: Effects on Sustainable Choices." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-079, January 2019.