Business Commons^™

When And Why Narcissists Exhibit Greater Hindsight Bias And Less Perceived Learning, Satoris S. Howes, Edgar E. Kausel, Alexander T. Jackson, Jochen Reb

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The present research sought to examine the impact of narcissism, prediction accuracy, and should counterfactual thinking—which includes thoughts such as “I should have done something different”—on hindsight bias (the tendency to exaggerate in hindsight what one knew in foresight) and perceived learning. To test these effects, we conducted four studies (total n = 727). First, in Study 1 we examined a moderated mediation model, in which should counterfactual thinking mediates the relation between narcissism and hindsight bias, and this mediation is moderated by prediction accuracy such that the relationship is negative when predictions are accurate and positive when predictions are …

Moral Traps: When Self-Serving Attributions Backfire In Prosocial Behavior, Stephanie C. Lin, Julian J. Zlatev, Dale T. Miller

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Two assumptions guide the current research. First, people's desire to see themselves as moral disposes them to make attributions that enhance or protect their moral self-image: When approached with a prosocial request, people are inclined to attribute their own noncompliance to external factors, while attributing their own compliance to internal factors. Second, these attributions can backfire when put to a material test. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that people who attribute their refusal of a prosocial request to an external factor (e.g., having an appointment), but then have that excuse removed, are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior than …

Sidestepping The Rock And The Hard Place: The Private Avoidance Of Prosocial Requests, Stephanie C. Lin, Rebecca L. Schaumberg, Taly Reich

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

For some, facing a prosocial request feels like being trapped between a rock and a hard place, requiring either a resource (e.g., money) or psychological (e.g., self-reproach) cost. Because both outcomes are dissatisfying, we propose that these people are motivated to avoid prosocial requests, even when they face these requests in private, anonymous contexts. In two experiments, in which participants' anonymity and privacy was assured, participants avoided facing prosocial requests and were willing to do so at a personal cost. This was true both for people who would have otherwise complied with the request and those who would have otherwise …

The Technology Effect: How Perceptions Of Technology Drive Excessive Optimism, Brent B. Clark, Christopher Robert, Stephen A. Hampton

Marketing and Management Faculty Publications

Purpose: We propose that constant exposure to advances in technology has resulted in an implicit association between technology and success that has conditioned decision makers to be overly optimistic about the potential for technology to drive successful outcomes. Three studies examine this phenomenon and explore the boundaries of this “technology effect.”

Design/Methodology/Approach: In Study 1, participants (N = 147) made simulated investment decisions where the information about technology was systematically varied. In Study 2 (N = 143), participants made decisions in a resource dilemma where technology was implicated in determining the amount of a resource available for harvest. Study 3 …

Organizational Leaders’ Experience With Fear-Related Emotions: A Critical Incident Study, Al Barkouli

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study used the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) to better understand how organizational leaders experienced fear-related emotions. Through semi-structured interviews, fifteen executive leaders, mainly chief executive officers (CEOs), shared their experiences in response to threatening, risky, or dangerous incidents. In addition to a phenomenological understanding of the experience, participants illuminated the role that fear-related emotions play in leader decisions, how these emotions influence leader-follower relationships, the impacts of fear-related emotions on leaders’ health and well-being, and the ways leaders managed their experience with fear-related emotions including the role courage played. Leaders often faced threats, risks, or dangers (stimuli) from within …

Anticipated Regret In Time-Based Work-Family Conflict, Jessica Bagger, Jochen Reb, Andrew Li

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The primary purpose of this research was to investigate the role of anticipated regret in time-based work-family conflict decisions.

A total of 90 working parents responded to a decision making problem describing a time-based conflict between a work event and a family event. Participants' preference for which event to attend constituted the dependent variable. Independent variables were participants' work and family centralities. Anticipated regret for choosing the work option and anticipated regret for choosing the family option were measured as hypothesized mediators.

Structural equation modeling revealed that anticipated regret for choosing the family option mediated the relationship between work centrality …

Can Consumers Make Affordable Care Affordable? The Value Of Choice Architecture, Eric J. Johnson, Ran Hassin, Tom Baker, Allison T. Bajger, Galen Treuer

All Faculty Scholarship

Starting this October, tens of millions will be choosing health coverage on a state or federal health insurance exchange as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We examine how well people make these choices, how well they think they do, and what can be done to improve these choices. We conducted 6 experiments asking people to choose the most cost-effective policy using websites modeled on current exchanges. Our results suggest there is significant room for improvement. Without interventions, respondents perform at near chance levels and show a significant bias, overweighting out-of-pocket expenses and deductibles. Financial incentives do …

Learn To Interview More Effectively, Kristie L. Campana

Psychology Department Publications

No abstract provided.

Adding Small Differences Can Increase Similarity And Choice, Jongmin Kim, Nathan Novemsky, Ravi Dhar

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Similarity plays a critical role in many judgments and choices. Traditional models of similarity posit that increasing the number of differences between objects cannot increase judged similarity between them. In contrast to these previous models, the present research shows that introducing a small difference in an attribute that previously was identical across objects can increase perceived similarity between those objects. We propose an explanation based on the idea that small differences draw more attention than identical attributes do and that people’s perceptions of similarity involve averaging attributes that are salient. We provide evidence that introducing small differences between objects increases …

Towards Interactive, Internet-Based Decision Aid For Vaccination Decisions: Better Information Alone Is Not Enough, Terry Connolly, Jochen Reb

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Vaccination decisions, as in choosing whether or not to immunize one's small child against specific diseases, are both psychologically and computationally complex. The psychological complexities have been extensively studied, often in the context of shaping convincing or persuasive messages that will encourage parents to vaccinate their children. The computational complexity of the decision has been less noted. However, even if the parent has access to neutral, accurate, credible information on vaccination risks and benefits, he or she can easily be overwhelmed by the task of combining this information into a well-reasoned decision. We argue here that the Internet, in addition …

Regret In Cancer-Related Decisions, Terry Connolly, Jochen Reb

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Decision-related regret is a negative emotion associated with thinking about a past or future choice. The thinking component generally takes the form of a wish that things were otherwise and involves a comparison of what actually did or will take place with some better alternative--a counterfactual thought. For predecisional (anticipated) regret, the thinking involves a mental simulation of the outcomes that might result from different choice options. Prior research has focused on regret associated with decision outcomes, addressing especially (a) the comparison outcome selected and (b) whether the outcome resulted from action or inaction. More recent research examines regret associated …

The Effects Of Individual, Contextual, And Moral Intensity Factors On Environmental Ethical Decision Making, Brenda L. Flannery

Management and Entrepreneurship Department Publications

Most extant studies of organizational ethical decision making have been remiss in doing one or more of the following: (a) building theoretical foundations; (b) encompassing the individual, contextual, and issue-specific determinants impacting ethical judgments; (c) offering testable hypotheses; and/or (d) establishing methodological rigor. This study confronted those challenges aiming to understand the decision intentions of top managers in the metal finishing industry concerning the treatment of hazardous wastewater. This study employed an extended version of Ajzen's (1988) theory of planned behavior. The theory accommodatingly modeled the individual (i.e., attitudes, self-efficacy, personal moral obligation), contextual (subjective norms, organizational climate, and financial …