Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(635)
- Faculty Publications (208)
- July 2009
- Article
When Misconduct Goes Unnoticed: The Acceptability of Gradual Erosion in Others' Unethical Behavior
By: Francesca Gino and Max Bazerman
Four laboratory studies show that people are more likely to accept others' unethical behavior when ethical degradation occurs slowly rather than in one abrupt shift. Participants served in the role of watchdogs charged with catching instances of cheating. The watchdogs... View Details
- Article
Contagion and Differentiation in Unethical Behavior: The Effect of One Bad Apple on the Barrel
By: F. Gino, S. Ayal and D. Ariely
In a world where encounters with dishonesty are frequent, it is important to know if exposure to other people's unethical behavior can increase or decrease an individual's dishonesty. In Experiment 1, our confederate cheated ostentatiously by finishing a task... View Details
- Article
Contagion or Restitution? When Bad Apples can Motivate Ethical Behavior
By: F. Gino, J. Gu and C. B. Zhong
- 2009
- Working Paper
Dishonest Deed, Clear Conscience: Self-Preservation through Moral Disengagement and Motivated Forgetting
By: Lisa L. Shu, Francesca Gino and Max H. Bazerman
People routinely engage in dishonest acts without feeling guilty about their behavior. When and why does this occur? Across four studies, people justified their dishonest deeds through moral disengagement and exhibited motivated forgetting of information that might... View Details
- Article
The Performer's Reactions to Procedural Injustice: When Prosocial Identity Reduces Prosocial Behavior
By: Adam M. Grant, Andrew Molinsky, Joshua D. Margolis, Melissa Kamin and William Schiano
Considerable research has examined how procedural injustice affects victims and witnesses of unfavorable outcomes, with little attention to the “performers” who deliver these outcomes. Drawing on dissonance theory, we hypothesized that performers' reactions to... View Details
- Article
When Dreaming Is Believing: The (Motivated) Interpretation of Dreams
By: Carey K. Morewedge and Michael I. Norton
This research investigated laypeople's interpretation of their dreams. Participants from both Eastern and Western cultures believed that dreams contain hidden truths (Study 1) and considered dreams to provide more meaningful information about the world than similar... View Details
- 2008
- Chapter
Corporate Honesty and Business Education: A Behavioral Model
By: Rakesh Khurana and Herbert Gintis
Since the mid-1970s neoclassical economic theory has dominated business school thinking and teaching in dealing with the nature of human motivation. However valuable in understanding competitive product and financial markets, neoclassical economic theory employs an... View Details
- November 2008 (Revised September 2014)
- Background Note
Differences at Work: The Leadership Challenge
By: Sandra J. Sucher
This note reviews research findings on the leadership challenges of diversity, including the social psychology of similarity and difference, the value of multiple perspectives to problem-solving, the relationship between diversity and firm performance, and management... View Details
- November 2008
- Supplement
Differences at Work: Sameer (B)
By: Sandra J. Sucher and Rachel Gordon
In Differences at Work: Sameer (B) HBS Case No. 9-609-054, Sameer leaves the firm at the summer's end without confronting his employer about the jokes and wondering whether he made the right choice. Later Sameer's former employer calls him to apologize for their... View Details
- October 2008
- Article
Navigating the Bind of Necessary Evils: Psychological Engagement and the Production of Interpersonally Sensitive Behavior
By: Joshua D. Margolis and Andrew Molinsky
We develop grounded theory about how individuals respond to the subjective experience of performing "necessary evils" and how that influences the way they treat targets of their actions. Despite the importance and difficulty of delivering just, compassionate treatment... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
Dirty Work, Clean Hands: The Moral Psychology of Indirect Agency
By: Neeru Paharia, Karim S. Kassam, Joshua D. Greene and Max H. Bazerman
When powerful people cause harm, they often do so indirectly through other people. Are harmful actions carried out through others evaluated less negatively than harmful actions carried out directly? Four experiments examine the moral psychology of indirect agency.... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
Nameless + Harmless = Blameless: When Seemingly Irrelevant Factors Influence Judgment of (Un)ethical Behavior
By: Francesca Gino, Lisa L. Shu and Max H. Bazerman
People often make judgments about the ethicality of others' behaviors and then decide how harshly to punish such behaviors. When they make these judgments and decisions, sometimes the victims of the unethical behavior are identifiable, and sometimes they are not. In... View Details
- July 2008
- Article
Fairness in Extended Dictator-Game Experiments
By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Reiner Eichenberger
We test the robustness of behavior in dictator games by offering allocators the choice to play an unattractive lottery. With this lottery option, mean transfers from allocators to recipients substantially decline, partly because many allocators now keep the entire... View Details
- July 2008
- Article
Harnessing Our Inner Angels and Demons: What We Have Learned About Want/Should Conflicts and How That Knowledge Can Help Us Reduce Short-Sighted Decision Making
By: Katherine L. Milkman, Todd Rogers and Max Bazerman
Although observers of human behavior have long been aware that people regularly struggle with internal conflict when deciding whether to behave responsibly or indulge in impulsivity, psychologists and economists did not begin to empirically investigate this type of... View Details
- 2008
- Chapter
I Read Playboy for the Articles: Justifying and Rationalizing Questionable Preferences
By: Zoe Chance and Michael I. Norton
When people behave in ways that might appear selfish, prejudiced or perverted, they engage in a host of strategies designed to justify questionable behavior with rational excuses: “I hired my son because he's more qualified”; “I promoted Ashley because she does a... View Details
- June 2008 (Revised January 2012)
- Background Note
Solving a Problem or Sounding the Alarm? Guidelines on Blowing the Whistle
By: Lynn S. Paine and Lara Adamsons
Many of us will at some point in our professional lives encounter situations involving what we believe to be wrongful or injurious activities that may cause harm to innocent parties, our company, or the public. It may be necessary to bring the matter to the attention... View Details
- June 2008
- Article
Psychological Influence in Negotiation: An Introduction Long Overdue
By: Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman
This paper discusses the causes and consequences of the (surprisingly) limited extent to which social influence research has penetrated the field of negotiation and then presents a framework for bridging the gap between these two literatures. The paper notes that one... View Details
Keywords: Social Issues; Research; Framework; Negotiation Tactics; Decisions; Power and Influence; Behavior; Ethics
- January 2008
- Article
Do Well by Doing Good? Don't Count on It
By: Joshua D. Margolis, Hillary Anger Elfenbein and James P. Walsh
Research over 35 years shows only a weak link between socially responsible corporate behavior and good financial performance. However, there's no evidence of risk in doing good, only in being exposed for misdeeds. View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
See No Evil: When We Overlook Other People's Unethical Behavior
By: Francesca Gino, Don A. Moore and Max H. Bazerman
It is common for people to be more critical of others' ethical choices than of their own. This chapter explores those remarkable circumstances in which people see no evil in others' unethical behavior. Specifically, we explore 1) the motivated tendency to overlook the... View Details
- November 2007
- Case
Differences at Work: Emily (A)
By: Sandra J. Sucher and Rachel Gordon
In Differences at Work: Emily (A) HBS Case No. 9-408-014 Emily, a private equity analyst, reads disturbing, sexually focused emails written about her by work colleagues and acquaintances after they all attended a work-related social event. Emily debates what she should... View Details