Publications

Article

The (Perceived) Meaning of Spontaneous Thoughts

By: Carey K. Morewedge, Colleen Giblin and Michael I. Norton

Spontaneous thoughts, the output of a broad category of uncontrolled and inaccessible higher-order mental processes, arise frequently in everyday life. The seeming randomness by which spontaneous thoughts arise might give people good reason to dismiss them as... View Details

Keywords: Spontaneous Thoughts; Self-Insight; Meaning; Attribution; Judgment And Decision Making; Decision Making; Cognition and Thinking

Web

Faculty & Research - Race, Gender & Equity

Groysberg Janice H. Hammond Nien-he Hsieh Jon M. Jachimowicz Summer R. Jackson Rosabeth M. Kanter Rembrand M. Koning Anthony Mayo Kathleen L. McGinn Kristin W. Mugford Kyle R. Myers Das Narayandas Michael I.... View Details

February 2013 (Revised May 2013)
Case

Juan Valdez: Innovation in Caffeination

By: Michael I. Norton and Jeremy Dann

Corporate entrepreneurs attempt to revive Colombia's famous Juan Valdez brand in the age of Starbucks, with café chain and packaged coffee ventures. In the 1970s and 80s, the iconic "Juan Valdez" ingredient brand was the most recognized in the world of coffee. The... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Branding; Global Business; Sales; Marketing; Retailing; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Change; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Brands and Branding; Innovation and Invention

Educators

Purchase

26 Nov 2019
News

The Ritual Effect

Source: Norton Source: Norton Professor Michael Norton studies the ways in which rituals can influence human behavior. In his research, he has... View Details

Keywords: rituals

01 Jun 2024
News

Again and Again

Edited by Jen McFarland Flint; Illustrations by Jason Holley Whenever he’s presenting to a large audience, Professor Michael Norton likes to pose this question to the crowd: After you get up in the morning, do you brush your teeth first and then shower, or vice versa?... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

July 2021
Article

Consumers—Especially Women—Avoid Buying from Firms with Higher Gender Pay Gaps

By: Tobias Schlager, Bhavya Mohan, Katherine DeCelles and Michael I. Norton

We document a unique driver of consumer behavior: the public disclosure of a firm’s gender pay gap. Four experiments provide causal evidence that when firms are revealed to have gender pay gaps, consumers are less willing to pay for their goods, a reaction driven by... View Details

Keywords: Pay Gap; Perceived Wage Fairness; Purchase Intention; Gender; Wages; Fairness; Perception; Consumer Behavior

April 2018
Article

Consumers Avoid Buying from Firms with Higher CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratios

By: Bhavya Mohan, Tobias Schlager, Rohit Deshpandé and Michael I. Norton

We document a novel driver of consumer behavior: pay ratio disclosure. Swiss corporation performance data gathered during a legally mandated pay ratio referendum reveals that salient high pay ratios are associated with decreased firm sales (Pilot Study). An... View Details

Keywords: Pay Ratio; Wage Fairness; Purchase Intention; Customers; Wages; Fairness; Consumer Behavior

November 2008
Article

Getting off the Hedonic Treadmill, One Step at a Time: The Impact of Regular Religious Practice and Exercise on Well-Being

By: Daniel Mochon, Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely

Many studies have shown that few events in life have a lasting impact on subjective well-being because of people's tendency to adapt quickly; worse, those events that do have a lasting impact tend to be negative. We suggest that while major events may not provide... View Details

Keywords: Health; Religion; Behavior; Happiness; Welfare

2020
Working Paper

Consumers Punish Firms That Cut Employee Pay in Response to COVID-19

By: Bhavya Mohan, Serena Hagerty and Michael Norton

Two experiments, including one incentive compatible study, examine the impact of cutting pay for executives versus employees in response to COVID-19 on consumer behavior. Study 1 explores the effect of announcing cuts or no cuts to CEO and employee pay, and shows that... View Details

Keywords: Employee Furloughs; CEO Pay Cuts; Pay Ratios; Purchase Intention; Health Pandemics; Employees; Wages; Executive Compensation; Consumer Behavior

SSRN

Web

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Best-Selling Author in 2012 for I Moved Your Cheese: For Those Who Refuse to Live as Mice in Someone Else's Maze (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2011). 2011 Deepak Malhotra : Won the 2011 Charles M. Williams Award for Excellence in Teaching. View Details

Web

Human Behavior & Decision-Making - Faculty & Research

promoting dishonesty are discussed. Article The (Perceived) Meaning of Spontaneous Thoughts By: Carey K. Morewedge, Colleen Giblin and Michael I. Norton Spontaneous thoughts,... View Details

13 Oct 2015
First Look

October 13, 2015

Amy, Elizabeth Baily Wolf, Peter Glick, Susan Crotty, Jihye Chong, and Michael I. Norton Abstract—Four studies tested whether cultural values moderate the content of gender... View Details

Web

Technology & Innovation - Faculty & Research

projects rather than purely increasing patenting. April 2014 Article Botsourcing and Outsourcing: Robot, British, Chinese, and German Workers Are for Thinking—Not Feeling—Jobs By: Adam Waytz and Michael I.... View Details

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

July – August 2008
Article

Help Employees Give Away Some of That Bonus

By: Michael I. Norton and Elizabeth W. Dunn

Employees who spend some or all of their bonuses on others-thereby creating what the authors call a "prosocial" workplace-are happier as a result. Managers can enhance that effect by providing opportunities to share the wealth. View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Behavior; Happiness

29 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 29

terminal illness or execution—may be more pleasant than one imagines. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53127 in press Current Opinion in Psychology (Mis)perceptions of Inequality By: Hauser, Oliver P., and View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

(PRODUCT) RED (A)

By: Youngme E. Moon, Michael I. Norton and David Chen

Describes the launch and initial results of the (PRODUCT) RED campaign, a social marketing initiative conceived by U2's Bono and Bobby Shriver to combat AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. The company licensed the (RED) brand to partner companies, which initially included Gap,... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Social Enterprise; Africa