Publications

Forthcoming
Article

On the Economic Origins of Concerns Over Women’s Chastity

By: Anke Becker

This paper studies the origins and function of customs and norms that intend to keep women from being promiscuous. Using large-scale survey data from more than 100 countries, I test the anthropological theory that a particular form of preindustrial... View Details

Keywords: Infibulation; Female Sexuality; Paternity Uncertainty; Concern About Women's Chastity; Pastoralism; Economic Anthropology; History; Gender; Social Issues; Culture

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17 Nov 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Equity Concerns Are Narrowly Framed

Keywords: by Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler

16 Feb 2021
Working Paper Summaries

Information Avoidance and Image Concerns

Keywords: by Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler

May 2014
Article

I'm Sorry About the Rain! Superfluous Apologies Demonstrate Empathic Concern and Increase Trust

By: A.W. Brooks, H. Dai and M.E. Schweitzer

Existing apology research has conceptualized apologies as a device to rebuild relationships following a transgression. As a result, apology research has failed to investigate the use of apologies for outcomes for which individuals are obviously not culpable (e.g.,... View Details

Keywords: Superfluous Apology; Apology; Benevolence-based Trust; Empathy; Stochastic Trust Game; Trust; Emotions; Societal Protocols

Article

The Social Purpose of Corporations

By: Nien-he Hsieh, Marco Meyer, David Rodin and Jens van ‘t Klooster

To think about the purpose of corporations is to think about what corporations are for. In this article, we argue that the concept of a purpose has an important role in thinking about the moral evaluation of corporations. We make three contributions. First, we... View Details

Keywords: Social Purpose; Corporate Purpose; The Corporation; Market Failures; Measurement Of Purpose; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Ethics

10 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

Minimum Wage Debate Is Really About Social Values

Suddenly, the minimum wage debate is on high boil. Perhaps spurred by growing concern over wealth inequality, minimum wage proposals are heating heat up in cities from Chicago to Albany, and in states from South Carolina to Florida.... View Details

Keywords: by April White; Retail; Manufacturing

2022
Case

Tesla's Battery Supply Chain: A Growing Concern

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

In October 2021, the fictional vice president of supply chain sustainability at Tesla is working on finding the best way to achieve Tesla's goal of 100% recycling for the batteries in its electric vehicles (EVs) as they reach their end of life. A major challenge in... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Governance Compliance; Metals and Minerals; Auto Industry

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Article

Cheating, Inequality Aversion, and Appealing to Social Norms

By: Clara Amato, Francesca Gino, Natalia Montinari and Pierluigi Sacco

We conduct a field experiment involving 143, 9-years old children in their classrooms. Children are requested to flip a coin in private and receive a big or a small prize depending on the outcome they report. Comparing the actual and theoretical distribution of... View Details

Keywords: Cheating; Inequality Aversion; Social Norms; Children; Experiment; Behavior; Equality and Inequality; Moral Sensibility

Article

The Social Utility of Feature Creep

By: Debora V. Thompson and Michael I. Norton

Previous research shows that consumers frequently choose products with too many features that they later find difficult to use. Our research shows that this seemingly suboptimal behavior may in fact confer benefits when factoring in the social context of consumption.... View Details

Keywords: Impression Management; Social Influence; Conspicuous Consumption; Signaling; Product Features; Consumer Behavior; Information Technology; Experience and Expertise; Status and Position

06 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

Cheese Moving: Effecting Change Rather Than Accepting It

to help readers question their assumptions about what limitations they really face and to encourage them to take the steps necessary to change not only their behavior but also their circumstances. In the face of long-standing precedent,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Article

How Well Do Social Ratings Actually Measure Corporate Social Responsibility?

By: Aaron K. Chatterji, David I. Levine and Michael W. Toffel

Ratings of corporations' environmental activities and capabilities influence billions of dollars of "socially responsible" investments as well as some consumers, activists, and potential employees. In one of the first studies to assess these ratings, we examine how... View Details

Keywords: Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Measurement and Metrics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Effectiveness; Natural Environment; Pollutants

02 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Excerpt: ‘A Social Strategy’

imagine a scenario in which a firm asks its customers to tell their friends about a particular product in exchange for giving these people monetary benefits. Although such a scheme will probably benefit the company, it will also probably... View Details

June 23, 2020
Article

Inequality in Socially Permissible Consumption

By: Serena Hagerty and Kate Barasz

Lower-income individuals are frequently criticized for their consumption decisions; this research examines why. Eleven preregistered studies document systematic differences in permissible consumption—interpersonal judgments about what is acceptable (or not) for others... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Judgments; Consumption; Economic Inequalty; Income; Equality and Inequality; Spending; Judgments

08 Jan 2014
What Do You Think?

Do Productivity Increases Contribute to Social Inequality?

Summing Up Does Social Equality Improve Productivity? Inequality in our society is an important and growing issue. It prompted a debate among respondents to this month's column about the causes, specifically... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

September 2014
Article

Income Inequality and Social Preferences for Redistribution and Compensation Differentials

By: William R. Kerr

In cross-sectional studies, countries with greater income inequality typically exhibit less support for government-led redistribution and greater acceptance of wage inequality (e.g., United States versus Western Europe). If individual nations evolve along this pattern,... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Income; Government and Politics

27 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Social Network Marketing: What Works?

success of Google, social networking sites such as Facebook have been trying an advertising-based business model. However, studies show that the click-through rate of ads on social networking sites is... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Advertising; Publishing; Retail

March 2022
Article

How Much Does Your Boss Make? The Effects of Salary Comparisons

By: Zoë B. Cullen and Ricardo Perez-Truglia

The vast majority of the pay inequality in an organization comes from differences in pay between employees and their bosses. But are employees aware of these pay disparities? Are employees demotivated by this inequality? To address these questions, we conducted a... View Details

Keywords: Salary; Inequality; Managers; Career Concerns; Pay Transparency; Wages; Equality and Inequality; Perception; Behavior

08 Aug 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

Parmigiano-Reggiano, Jane Austen, and Other Things You Didn't Know About Finance

MarsYu Who says finance is boring? These stories, written about HBS faculty research and case studies, cover such diverse topics as financial adviser robots, the rise of impact investing, and the tell-tale signs that brokers are giving... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

2010
Working Paper

Conveniently Upset: Avoiding Altruism by Distorting Beliefs about Others

By: Rafael Di Tella and Ricardo Perez-Truglia

In this paper we present the results from a "corruption game" (a dictator game modified so that the second player can accept a side payment that reduces the overall size of the pie). Dictators (silently) treated to have the possibility of taking a larger proportion of... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Fairness; Values and Beliefs; Game Theory; Personal Characteristics