Publications

Article

Why, When, and How Much to Entertain Consumers in Advertisements?: A Web-based Facial Tracking Field Study

By: Thales Teixeira, Rosalind Picard and Rana el Kaliouby

The presence of positive entertainment (e.g., visual imagery, upbeat music, humor) in TV advertisements can make them more attractive and persuasive. However, little is known about the downsides of using too much entertainment. This research focuses on why, when, and... View Details

Keywords: Face-tracking; Entertainment; Television; Purchase Intent; Commercials; Facial Expressions; Marketing Communication; Advertising; Television Entertainment; Marketing; Advertising Industry

April 2025
Article

Serving with a Smile on Airbnb: Analyzing the Economic Returns and Behavioral Underpinnings of the Host’s Smile

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Elizabeth Friedman, Kannan Srinivasan, Ravi Dhar and Xupin Zhang

Non-informational cues, such as facial expressions, can significantly influence judgments and interpersonal impressions. While past research has explored how smiling affects business outcomes in offline or in-store contexts, relatively less is known about how smiling... View Details

Keywords: Sharing Economy; Airbnb; Image Feature Extraction; Machine Learning; Facial Expressions; Prejudice and Bias; Nonverbal Communication; E-commerce; Consumer Behavior; Perception

Article

Machine Learning Approaches to Facial and Text Analysis: Discovering CEO Oral Communication Styles

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Dan Wang, Natalie A. Carlson and Tarun Khanna

We demonstrate how a novel synthesis of three methods—(1) unsupervised topic modeling of text data to generate new measures of textual variance, (2) sentiment analysis of text data, and (3) supervised ML coding of facial images with a cutting-edge convolutional neural... View Details

Keywords: CEOs; Communication Style; Machine Learning; Spoken Communication; Nonverbal Communication; Personal Characteristics; Analysis; Performance

2019
Working Paper

Machine Learning Approaches to Facial and Text Analysis: Discovering CEO Oral Communication Styles

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Dan Wang, Natalie A. Carlson and Tarun Khanna

We demonstrate how a novel synthesis of three methods—(1) unsupervised topic modeling of text data to generate new measures of textual variance, (2) sentiment analysis of text data, and (3) supervised ML coding of facial images with a cutting-edge convolutional neural... View Details

Keywords: Spoken Communication; Business History; Analytics and Data Science; Finance; Performance

Passion is stereotypically expressed through animated facial expressions, energetic body movements, varied tone, and pitch—and met with interpersonal benefits. However, these capture only a subset of passion expressions that are more common for extraverts.... View Details

Forthcoming
Article

Extraverts Reap Greater Social Rewards from Passion Because They Express Passion More Frequently and More Diversely

By: Kai Krautter, Anabel Büchner and Jon M. Jachimowicz

Passion is stereotypically expressed through animated facial expressions, energetic body movements, varied tone, and pitch—and met with interpersonal benefits. However, these capture only a subset of passion expressions that are more common for extraverts. Indeed, in... View Details

Keywords: Passion; Personality; Extraversion; Scale Development; Perception; Personal Characteristics

11 Oct 2012
News

Decoding debate body language

March 2012
Article

The Hierarchical Face: Higher Rankings Lead to Less Cooperative Looks

By: Patricia Chen, Christopher G. Myers, Shirli Kopelman and Stephen M. Garcia

In 3 studies, we tested the hypothesis that the higher ranked an individual's group is, the less cooperative the facial expression of that person is judged to be. Study 1 established this effect among business school deans, with observers rating individuals from higher... View Details

Keywords: Rank and Position; Cooperation

16 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

Is Your Workplace Biased Against Introverts?

Harvard Business School research. That’s because they tend to demonstrate their feelings more, using cues like animated facial expressions, while introverts come off as more aloof due to their quiet and reserved ways, says Jon M.... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

March 2012
Article

The New Science of Viral Ads

By: Thales Teixeira

It's the holy grail of digital marketing: the viral ad, a pitch that large numbers of viewers decide to share with family and friends. Several techniques derived from new technology can help advertisers attain this. In our research, two colleagues and I use... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Information Technology; Research; System; Marketing; Emotions; Television Entertainment

April 2012
Article

Emotion-induced Engagement in Internet Video Ads

By: Thales S. Teixeira, Michel Wedel and Rik Pieters

This study shows how advertisers can leverage emotion and attention to engage consumers in watching Internet video ads. In a controlled experiment, joy and surprise were assessed through automated facial expression detection for a sample of ads. Concentration of... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Online Advertising; Emotions

February 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Marvin: A Personalized Telehealth Approach to Mental Health

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Eshani Sharma, Andrew Nguyen, Thomas Arsenault, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Julia Kelley

More than one third of Americans were said to suffer some type of behavioral health ailment at some point in their lifetime, with many people requiring chronic therapy or intervention. Despite significant clinical needs, access to reliable treatment has been difficult... View Details

Keywords: Mental Health; Applications; Startup Management; Telehealth; Health Care Entrepreneurship; Health ＆ Wellness; Health Care; Health Care and Treatment; Customization and Personalization; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Applications and Software

Educators

October 2009 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Emotiv Systems Inc.: It's the Thoughts that Count

By: Elie Ofek, Jason Riis and Paul Hamilton

Emotiv is getting ready to launch its innovative brain-computer interfacing (BCI) technology. The company has developed a special headset, called EPOC, and highly sophisticated software that can translate a person's emotions, cognitive thoughts, and facial expressions... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Sales; Technological Innovation; Demand and Consumers; Marketing Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Forecasting and Prediction; Product Launch; Business Startups; Technology Industry

Educators