Publications

26 Jan 2016
First Look

January 26, 2016

worker productivity by using data from two important applications—police hiring and teacher tenure decisions. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50430 December 2015 Current Opinion in Psychology The What and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Oct 2010
First Look

First Look: October 5, 2010

Right Way Authors:Todd Rogers and Michael I. Norton Abstract What happens when people try to "dodge" a question they would rather not answer View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Dec 2007
First Look

First Look: December 4, 2007

Working PapersThe "Fees Savings" Link, or Purchasing Fifty Pounds of Pasta Authors:Michael I. Norton and Leonard Lee Abstract Many consumers have had the experience of entering discount... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Article

Memos to the President from a 'Council of Psychological Science Advisers'

By: Bethany A. Teachman, Michael I. Norton and Barbara A. Spellman

On September 15, 2015, President Obama issued an Executive Order recommending that executive departments and agencies use "behavioral science insights to better serve the American people." The articles in this special section were already in press when the order was... View Details

Keywords: Social Psychology; Government Administration; Public Administration Industry; United States

August 19, 2015
Article

The Slow Decay and Quick Revival of Self-deception

By: Zoe Chance, Francesca Gino, Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely

People demonstrate an impressive ability to self-deceive, distorting misbehavior to reflect positively on themselves—for example, by cheating on a test and believing that their inflated performance reflects their true ability. But what happens to self-deception when... View Details

Keywords: Self-deception; Cheating; Self-enhancement; Positive Illusions; Motivated Reasoning; Perception; Behavior; Ethics

June 2012
Article

Consequence-Cause Matching: Looking to the Consequences of Events to Infer Their Causes

By: Robyn A. LeBoeuf and Michael I. Norton

We show that people non-normatively infer event causes from event consequences. For example, people inferred that a product failure (computer crash) had a large cause (widespread computer virus) if it had a large consequence (job loss), but that the identical failure... View Details

Keywords: Causal Inference; Product; Forecasting and Prediction; Motivation and Incentives; Failure

2014
Article

Rituals Alleviate Grieving for Loved Ones, Lovers, and Lotteries

By: Michael I. Norton and Francesca Gino

Three experiments explored the impact of mourning rituals after losses—of loved ones, lovers, and lotteries—on mitigating grief. Participants who were directed to reflect on past rituals or who were assigned to complete novel rituals after experiencing losses reported... View Details

Keywords: Loss; Practice; Emotions

April 2022
Article

Consumers Value Effort over Ease When Caring for Close Others

By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Mary Steffel, Elanor F. Williams and Michael I. Norton

Many products and services are designed to make caregiving easier, from premade meals for feeding families to robo-cribs that automatically rock babies to sleep. Yet, using these products may come with a cost: consumers may feel they have not exerted enough effort.... View Details

Keywords: Effor; Caregiving; Close Relationships; Symbolic Meaning; Signaling; Relationships; Consumer Behavior; Perception

21 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 21

Jan-Emmanuel, George W. Ward, Femke De Keulenaer, Bert Van Landeghem, Georgios Kavetsos, and Michael I. Norton Abstract—Are individuals more sensitive to losses than gains in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2007
Working Paper

The 'Fees → Savings' Link, or Purchasing Fifty Pounds of Pasta

By: Michael I. Norton and Leonard Lee

Many consumers have had the experience of entering discount membership clubs to make a few purchases, only to leave with enough pasta to outlast a nuclear winter. We suggest that the presence of membership fees can lead consumers to infer a "fees → savings" link,... View Details

Keywords: Price; Profit; Spending; Consumer Behavior; Retail Industry

22 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 22

Experimental Psychology: General The (Perceived) Meaning of Spontaneous Thoughts By: Morewedge, Carey K., Colleen E. Giblin, and Michael I. Norton Abstract—Much human thought... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

25 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 25

Publications August 2013 Social Psychological & Personality Science Matchmaking Promotes Happiness By: Anik, Lalin, and Michael I. Norton Abstract—Four studies document... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2012
Article

Giving Time Gives You Time

By: Cassie Mogilner, Zoe Chance and Michael I. Norton

Four experiments reveal a counterintuitive solution to the common problem of feeling that one does not have enough time: giving some of it away. Although people's objective amount of time cannot be increased (there are only 24 hours in a day), this research... View Details

Keywords: Time Perception; Well-being; Volunteering; Prosocial Behavior; Helping; Time Management; Welfare

11 Oct 2016
First Look

October 11, 2016

Ethan Porter, and Michael I. Norton Abstract—As Americans’ trust in government nears historic lows, frustration with government performance approaches record highs. We propose... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 Mar 2016
First Look

March 29, 2016

By: Buell, Ryan W., Ethan Porter, and Michael I. Norton Abstract—As Americans' trust in government nears historic lows, frustration with government performance approaches... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2008
Working Paper

Variance-Seeking for Positive (and Variance-Aversion for Negative) Experiences: Risk-Seeking in the Domain of Gains?

By: Jolie Mae Martin, Gregory M. Barron and Michael I. Norton

In contrast to research which has conflated losses with negative experiences and gains with positive experiences, we argue that because reference points are set by memories of extremely good and bad experiences, most outcomes are seen as losses in positive domains and... View Details

Keywords: Change; Experience and Expertise; Marketing; Research; Risk and Uncertainty; Loss; Perspective

2014
Article

Paying It Forward: Generalized Reciprocity and the Limits of Generosity

By: Kurt Gray, Adrian F. Ward and Michael I. Norton

When people are the victims of greed or recipients of generosity, their first impulse is often to pay back that behavior in kind. What happens when people cannot reciprocate, but instead have the chance to be cruel or kind to someone entirely different—to pay it... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Behavior; Situation or Environment; Attitudes

Article

From Thinking Too Little to Thinking Too Much: A Continuum of Decision Making.

By: Dan Ariely and Michael I. Norton

Due to the sheer number and variety of decisions that people make in their everyday lives-from choosing yogurts to choosing religions to choosing spouses-research in judgment and decision making has taken many forms. We suggest, however, that much of this research has... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Cognition and Thinking; Judgments; Research; Problems and Challenges