Publications

25 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

When Negotiating a Price, Never Bid with a Round Number

Initial Offer Precision and M&A Outcomes. Their research builds on several previous social psychology studies showing that people place more value on precise numbers than on relatively round numbers. People tend to assume, true or... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

01 May 2024
What Do You Think?

Have You Had Enough?

(Illustration created using image generated by Midjourney, an artificial intelligence tool.) Last month, I posted a column in HBS Working Knowledge titled, “What’s Enough to Make Us Happy?” Over the last few months, I’ve been asking myself the same question: “What’s... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

2014
Working Paper

Speaking of Corporate Social Responsibility

By: Hao Liang, Christopher Marquis, Luc Renneboog and Sunny Li Sun

We argue that the language spoken by corporate decision makers influences their firms' social responsibility and sustainability practices. Linguists suggest that obligatory future-time-reference (FTR) in a language reduces the psychological importance of the future.... View Details

Keywords: Language; Future-Time-Reference; Categories; Culture; Corporate Social Responsibility; Sustainability; Communication; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

SSRN

16 Mar 2010
First Look

First Look: March 16

Abstract This paper explores the psychology of conflict of interest by investigating how conflicting interests affect both public statements and private judgments. The results suggest that judgments are easily influenced by affiliation... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

July 2009
Article

Bad Riddance or Good Rubbish? Ownership and Not Loss Aversion Causes the Endowment Effect

By: C. K. Morewedge, L. L. Shu, D. T. Gilbert and T. D. Wilson

People typically demand more to relinquish the goods they own than they would be willing to pay to acquire those goods if they didn't already own them (the endowment effect). The standard economic explanation of this phenomenon is that people expect the pain of... View Details

Keywords: Value; Judgments; Consumer Behavior; Attitudes

20 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Creating a Positive Professional Image

As HBS professor Laura Morgan Roberts sees it, if you aren't managing your own professional image, others are. "People are constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

22 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Forgiving Student Loan Debt Leads to Better Jobs, Stronger Consumers

together financially. They were 12 percent less likely to default on other accounts, particularly credit cards and mortgages. “We weren’t expecting these people to be in such better shape,” Di Maggio says. “They used credit in much more responsible ways. There might... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

22 Jan 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, January 22, 2019

willingness to experiment. They’re seen as being psychologically safe, highly collaborative, and nonhierarchical. And research suggests that these behaviors translate into better innovative performance. But despite the fact that... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

14 Nov 2023
What Do You Think?

Do We Underestimate the Importance of Generosity in Leadership?

(AdobeStock/Kostiantyn) There are numerous studies of character traits in leaders. Human resource experts have advised us on what to look for in those who would be potential leaders. Management development focuses on behaviors that build the trust in others that is... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Teaching Interest

Economics of Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital

Designed for Harvard College sophomores.

Course Description: Why do so many individuals choose to pursue entrepreneurship despite substantial risks? How do these entrepreneurs raise money to finance their ventures? And what is the impact of... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship And Strategy; Venture Capital

December 2019
Article

It Helps to Ask: The Cumulative Benefits of Asking Follow-up Questions

By: Michael Yeomans, Alison Wood Brooks, Karen Huang, Julia A. Minson and Francesca Gino

In a recent article published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP; Huang, Yeomans, Brooks, Minson, & Gino, 2017), we reported the results of 2 experiments involving “getting acquainted” conversations among strangers and an observational field... View Details

Keywords: Question-asking; Conversation; Communication; Relationships; Interpersonal Communication

14 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

When a Vacation Isn’t Enough, a Sabbatical Can Recharge Your Life—and Your Career

A few years ago, DJ DiDonna seemed to have everything going for him. He had started a successful venture called the Entrepreneurial Finance Lab, which used psychometric factors to help banks issuing microloans in the developing world avoid risk. “We created an... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

28 Aug 2023
Research & Ideas

How Workplace Wellness Programs Can Give Employees the Energy Boost They Need

While companies may tout their wellness programs as a way of investing in their employees’ well-being, many are overly focused on reducing healthcare costs, so they tend to offer step challenges and gym discounts that workers don’t have time to use. Though these... View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson

22 Aug 2016
Research & Ideas

Master the One-on-One Meeting

Whether you’re a CEO or a line manager, your team is just as important as a group as its members are as individuals. Today’s tech companies offer many perks to attract and retain the best employees. We offer competitive salaries, training and the promise of... View Details

Keywords: by Julia B. Austin

October 2022
Article

Revisiting Extraversion and Leadership Emergence: A Social Network Churn Perspective

By: Blaine Landis, Jon M. Jachimowicz, Dan J. Wang and Robert W. Krause

One of the classic relationships in personality psychology is that extraversion is associated with emerging as an informal leader. However, recent findings raise questions about the longevity of extraverted individuals as emergent leaders. Here, we adopt a social... View Details

Keywords: Extraversion; Social Networks; Emergent Leadership; Leadership Development; Personal Characteristics; Perception

05 Aug 2022
Research & Ideas

Why People Crave Feedback—and Why We’re Afraid to Give It

If you were talking with a woman and noticed a splotch of red marker on her nose, would you tell her? You’re not alone if you would prefer to remain silent. A recent study looking at whether and why people give constructive feedback found that only four out of 212... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Better, Not Perfect

Every day, you make hundreds of decisions. They’re largely personal, but these choices have an ethical twinge as well; they value certain principles and ends over others. Max H. Bazerman argues that we can better balance both dimensions—and we needn’t seek... View Details

August 20, 2024
Article

Sexual Assault Victims Face a Penalty for Adjacent Consent

By: Jillian J. Jordan and Roseanna Sommers

Across 11 experimental studies (n = 12,257), we show that female victims of sexual assault are blamed more and seen as less morally virtuous if their assault follows voluntary sexual intimacy, a factor we term “adjacent consent”. Moreover, we illuminate a... View Details

Keywords: Perception; Prejudice and Bias; Moral Sensibility; Crime and Corruption; Social Issues