Publications

2010
Working Paper

Preference Intensities and Risk Aversion in School Choice: A Laboratory Experiment

By: Flip Klijn, Joana Pais and Marc Vorsatz

We experimentally investigate in the laboratory two prominent mechanisms that are employed in school choice programs to assign students to public schools. We study how individual behavior is influenced by preference intensities and risk aversion. Our main results show... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Education; Marketplace Matching; Risk and Uncertainty; Behavior; Personal Characteristics

Nine studies investigate when and why people may paradoxically prefer bad news—e.g., hoping for an objectively worse injury or a higher-risk diagnosis over explicitly better alternatives. Using a combination of field surveys and randomized experiments, the... View Details

June 2009
Article

Highbrow Films Gather Dust: Time-inconsistent Preferences and Online DVD Rentals

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

We report on a field study demonstrating systematic differences between the preferences people anticipate they will have over a series of options in the future and their subsequent revealed preferences over those options. Using a novel panel data set, we analyze the... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Forecasting and Prediction; Film Entertainment; Demand and Consumers; Renting or Rental; Power and Influence; Prejudice and Bias; Online Technology; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

2007
Working Paper

Highbrow Films Gather Dust: Time-inconsistent Preferences and Online DVD Rentals

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

We report on a field study demonstrating systematic differences between the preferences people anticipate they will have over a series of options in the future and their subsequent revealed preferences over those options. Using a novel panel data set, we analyze the... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Decision Choices and Conditions; Attitudes; Conflict and Resolution; Emotions; Film Entertainment; Cognition and Thinking; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

December 1988
Article

Ordinal Independence in Non-Linear Utility Theory

By: Jerry R. Green and Bruno Jullien

Individual behavior under uncertainty is characterized using a new axiom, ordinal independence, which is a weakened form of the von Neumann-Morgcnslern independence axiom. It states that if two distributions share a tail in common, then this tail can be modified... View Details

Keywords: Preferences

Research Summary

Superfluous Choices and the Persistence of Preference

Superfluous choices are unnecessary choice steps that could be removed without affecting the final choice context and outcome. They are introduced in this article in order to study the mere effects of consumer participation. Superfluous choices have no immediate impact... View Details

12 Sep 2018
News

Preferring to read print over digital books

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

2018
Working Paper

Corporate Bond Liquidity: A Revealed Preference Approach

By: Sergey Chernenko and Adi Sunderam

Article

Money, Time, and the Stability of Consumer Preferences

By: Leonard Lee, Michelle Lee, Marco Bertini, Gal Zauberman and Dan Ariely

1972
Chapter

Individual and Organizational Correlates of Pay System Preference

By: Michael Beer

April 2018
Article

The Power of Voice in Stimulating Morality: Eliciting Taxpayer Preferences Increases Tax Compliance

By: Cait Lamberton, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and Michael I. Norton

Decisions about paying taxes represent one of the most common moral quandaries faced by citizens. In the present research, we argue that taxpayer compliance can be raised by increasing “voice”: allowing taxpayers to express non-binding preferences about the way their... View Details

Keywords: Morality; Public Policy; Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Taxation; Policy; Attitudes; Governance Compliance

31 May 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Extremeness Seeking: When and Why Consumers Prefer the Extremes

Keywords: by John T. Gourville & Dilip Soman

2005
Working Paper

Customer Preference Discontinuities: A Trigger for Radical Technological Change

29 Nov 2023
Podcast

Why employers need to tune in to worker preferences

Sander van’t Noordende, CEO of HR services giant Randstad, on navigating the new normal of talent scarcity, an aging workforce, and AI. View Details

10 Jun 2020
News

The Seeds of Ideology: Historical Immigration and Political Preferences in the US

2016
Working Paper

Import Competition, Heterogeneous Preferences of Managers, and Productivity

By: Claudia Steinwender and Cheng Chen

January 2020
Article

One of a Kind: The Strong and Complex Preference for Unique Treatment from Romantic Partners

By: Lalin Anik and Ryan Hauser

Individuals prefer romantic partners who universally treat others well (i.e., partners who exhibit trait-level generosity) and also prefer partners who treat them uniquely. Previous work supports both preferences, yet the literature has largely ignored what happens... View Details

Keywords: Relationships; Behavior; Satisfaction