
The Effects of Extreme Rituals on Moral Behaviour: the performers-observers gap hypothesis
Religious rituals are found all over the world. Some cultures engage in…
Making people happier, healthier and wealthier with behavioral science, at home and abroad.
Sometimes our projects don’t quite fit into the Health, Money or World categories. We are an inquisitive bunch. Every now and then we can’t resist the opportunity to explore new areas. Read on to learn more about this research.
In 1987, a child named Jessica McClure was trapped in a well. Rescuers worked around the clock for 58 consecutive hours to free her. Eventually she was saved. This story generated more television coverage than genocides in Darfur and Rwanda combined. Why? What made television producers and newspaper editors think that this story of one individual was more important than the deaths of millions? Probably, because these decision-makers assumed the story of Jessica had a stronger emotional connection for American viewers.
There are two sides to our decision-making: rational and emotional. At times, the emotional can derail rational decisions. When does this happen? What are precautions that individuals can take before entering an emotional experience that could lead to bad decisions? How can emotions be moderated? Our research sets out to answer these questions.
Everyone cheats (a bit). But simple techniques can reduce the amount of cheating and increase moral behavior.
A recent Gallup poll found that 70 percent of American workers are disengaged from their jobs. That means only three in 10 people are motivated in their work. Think about the negative ramifications of this for employees, organizations and society as a whole. There are some major pitfalls in thinking that more money equals higher output on the job. We are researching the drivers that impact motivation - the role of connection, completion of goals, and different internal and external factors. These findings have the potential to dramatically approach how organizations reward employees and how individuals can approach their roles with a different perspective.
Self-control is the problem of considering what we want now versus what is good for us in the long-term. When our preferences in the moment are inconsistent with our ideals for the future, we are stuck battling the heat of the moment - which sadly has a much more pronounced influence over our decisions than our aspirations for the distant future. In other words, that half box of chocolate that we could consume now looks much more appealing than the whole box of chocolates that we could get if we waited a week.
Religious rituals are found all over the world. Some cultures engage in…
The role of trust in human interaction has been a long-standing question…
Håkonsson D.D.*, Mitkidis P.*, & Wallot S.* (2017) Team Emotions and Team…
A variety of joint action studies show that people tend to fall…
The notion that phenomenologically observable differences in the human eye are correlated…
Although 90% of Europeans say climate change is a ‘serious’ or ‘very…
Religious rituals are found all over the world. Some cultures hold extreme…
Religion can have an important influence in moral decision-making, and religious reminders…
Consumers’ existing habits are a key driver of resistance to new product…
Priming with religious concepts is known to have a positive effect on…
Each and every of the major religions would like to pride itself…
Laboratory and field studies have demonstrated that exposure to cues of intentional…
According to self-maintenance theory, people notice their dishonest acts and thus experience…
We hypothesize that if people are motivated by a particular social preference,…
Music is a natural human expression present in all cultures, but the…
This article investigates the impact of trust on bribery. We measure trust…
The physiological processes underlying trust are subject of intense interest in the…
Faces impart exhaustive information about their bearers, and are widely used as…
While employees might be expected to be especially vigilant to problems within…
While both economic and social considerations of fairness and equity play an…
Losses are commonly thought to result in a neuropsychological avoidance response. We…
Robots are predicted to serve in environments in which human honesty is…
We propose that people may gain certain "offensive" and "defensive" advantages for…
Religions (as such) do not promote morality. They appear to do so…
"How social norms change" is not only a theoretical question but also…
We propose a new means by which non-profits can induce donors to…
There is often a curious distinction between what the scientific community and…
Lying is a common occurrence in social interactions, but what predicts whether…
In this article, we examine the effects of authority on systemic trust…
How does economic instability impact employees’ perceptions of their own organizations? While…
One of the most essential but theoretically vexing issues regarding the notion…
Four studies document and explore the psychology underlying people's proclivity to connect…
We investigate how the perceived fairness of an income distribution depends on…
The current studies examine how valuation of authentic items varies as a…
How do people feel during extreme collective rituals? Despite longstanding speculation, few…
We adapted a method from developmental psychology [1] to explore whether capuchin…
Loss aversion, the standard model for understanding the effect of losses, is…
People often use their own feelings as a basis to predict others'…
Social scientists have long assumed that religion – and more specifically religious…
People (selectors) sometimes make choices both for themselves and for others (recipients).…
This paper employs two variants of the “mind game” to show how…
Extreme rituals entail excessive costs without apparent benefits, which raises an evolutionary…
Cooperation is necessary in many types of human joint activity and relations.…
The partial-reinforcement extinction effect (PREE) implies that learning under partial reinforcements is…
It has been shown that in certain situations losses exert a stronger…
Losses were found to improve cognitive performance, and this has been commonly…
Recent advances in social cognition and joint action reveal the social and…
As part of the rationality debate, we examine the impact of deliberative…
Do decisions from description and from experience trigger different cognitive processes? We…
We show that priming consumers with products associated with specific social networks…
This paper examines the effect of information processing styles (indexed by the…
The common view in psychology and neuroscience is that losses loom larger…
Three studies examine the extent to which laypeople endorse Hobbes's (1651/1960) view…
In a study using behavioral and physiological measures we induced experience-based affective…
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PRINCIPAL, COMMON CENTS LAB
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Mariel mainly works on applications of behavioral research, primarily in the financial services sector and public policy arena. She holds...
BEHAVIORAL RESEARCHER
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Michael graduated from the Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences program at the University of Pennsylvania. When he is not...
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SENIOR BEHAVIORAL RESEARCHER
Mikalyn is interested in behavioral science, design strategy, and organizational health. She enjoys finding ways for each of these domains...
SENIOR BEHAVIORAL RESEARCHER
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Perry is a senior researcher in the Common Cents Lab at CAH, investigating how behavioral science can influence the design...
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Rosa has been in Durham and at Duke since 2016. At CAH, she provides administrative support to the Common Cents Lab...
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Shanta Ricks received her Master of Arts in Psychology from North Carolina Central University in December 2018 and now works...
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Sid graduated from Indiana University South Bend with a B.A. in Psychology and now works at the Center for Advanced...
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Zarak Khan is a behavioral scientist with experience generating and applying insights to organizational strategy, innovation infrastructure, product design, public...