Publications

September 2023
Exercise

Irrationality in Action: Decision-Making Exercise

By: Alison Wood Brooks, Michael I. Norton and Oliver Hauser

This teaching exercise highlights the obstacle of biases in decision-making, allowing students to generate examples of potentially poor decision-making rooted in abundant and unwanted bias. This exercise has two parts: a pre-class, online survey in which students... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Decision Making

April 2020 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Race and Mass Incarceration in the United States

By: Reshmaan N. Hussam and Holly Fetter

The late 20th century saw a dramatic shift in the criminal justice system of the United States. While incarceration rates had remained stable through the 1960s, they quintupled by the 2000s to 707 per 100,000, far exceeding that of all other nations in the world. By... View Details

Keywords: Criminal Justice System; Incarceration; Race; Prejudice and Bias; United States

Educators

17 Sep 2018
Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of Penalties for Wrong Answers on the Gender Gap in Test Scores

Keywords: by Katherine B. Coffman and David Klinowski; Education

October 2015 (Revised January 2017)
Exercise

Gender at Work

By: Boris Groysberg and Colleen Ammerman

Keywords: Gender Bias; Gender Stereotypes; Prejudice and Bias; Gender

2002
Chapter

Doddering, but Dear: Process, Content, and Function in Stereotyping of Older Persons

By: A.J.C. Cuddy and S.T. Fiske

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Age

02 Aug 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Discrimination, Disenfranchisement and African American WWII Military Enlistment

Keywords: by Nancy Qian and Marco Tabellini

August 2020 (Revised December 2020)
Background Note

A Note on Ethical Analysis

By: Nien-hê Hsieh

To engage in ethical analysis is to answer such questions as “What is the right thing to do?” “What does it mean to be a good person?” “How should I live my life?” Ethical analysis, on its own, is often not adequate for doing the right thing or being a good... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Framework; Decision Making; Prejudice and Bias

Educators

2018
Chapter

Organizational Remedies for Discrimination

By: R. Ely and A. Feldberg

Laws now exist to protect employees from blatant forms of discrimination in hiring and promotion, but workplace discrimination persists in latent forms. These “second-generation” forms of bias arise in workplace structures, practices, and patterns of interaction that... View Details

Keywords: Discrimination; Prejudice and Bias; Equality and Inequality

Find at Harvard

30 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Political Polarization: Why We All Just Can't Get Along

A recent study suggests that America’s political polarization is driven more by incorrect beliefs and stereotypes about the other side than distaste with those people. That should be good news for those wondering how to knit polarized sides together, or at least nudge... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Banking; Financial Services

06 Mar 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

Has the Glass Ceiling Been Broken (or at Least Cracked)?

On Friday, we will celebrate International Women's Day 2019, an annual event to promote the advancement of gender equality and gauge our progress across many domains. In business, researchers tell us, progress is happening but is still slow. There are more women on... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

May 2019
Background Note

Sources of Capital for Black Entrepreneurs

By: Steven Rogers, Stanley Onuoha and Kayin Barclay

This note was written primarily for black entrepreneurs in order to help them raise capital. The second objective was to recognize the capital providers who are part of the solution to the problem of less than 2% of private equity capital and 1.7% of debt capital in... View Details

Keywords: Black Entrepreneurs; Access To Capital; Capital; Entrepreneurship; Prejudice and Bias

Educators

2012
Working Paper

The Dark Side of the Vote: Biased Voters, Social Information, and Information Aggregation Through Majority Voting

We experimentally investigate information aggregation through majority voting when some voters are biased. In such situations, majority voting can have a "dark side", i.e. result in groups making choices inferior to those made by individuals acting alone. We develop a... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Voting

2001
Other Unpublished Work

'Pure Accidents' and the Evolving Bias of American Liability Law

By: David Moss and Michael Fein

Keywords: Legal Liability; Prejudice and Bias; United States

25 Jan 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Racial Discrimination in the Sharing Economy: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Keywords: by Benjamin G. Edelman, Michael Luca & Daniel Svirsky; Tourism; Travel; Technology

Spring 2017
Article

Globalizing Latin American Beauty

By: Geoffrey Jones

This article discusses the growth over time of the beauty industry in Latin America and its bias towards celebrating whiter rather than darker skin. Although alleged Latin American fascination with beauty is regularly ascribed to culture, Latin sensuousness, and... View Details

Keywords: Latin America; Race And Ethnicity; Globalization; Race; Ethnicity; Prejudice and Bias; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Latin America

March 2011
Supplement

The Future of BioPasteur -- Supplement

By: Giovanni Gavetti and Francesca Gino

The purpose of this exercise is to let students experience a few biases that can be deleterious to strategic decision-making. In particular, students are induced to fall into a confirmatory trap, and to experience other biases such as anchoring and sampling bias.... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Problems and Challenges; Prejudice and Bias

February 2005
Article

Do Behavioral Biases Affect Prices?

By: Joshua D. Coval and Tyler Shumway

Keywords: Behavior; Prejudice and Bias; Price

Find at Harvard

June 18, 2022
Article

In Defense of Online Anonymity

By: Michael Luca

Lack of transparency on the internet may help fuel toxic dialogue, but it also encourages honest feedback and protects people against discrimination View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Anonymity; Honesty; Social Media; Prejudice and Bias