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Behavioral

Do Nudges Help Americans Save for Retirement? Not as Much as We Thought.

Two decades ago, Prof. James Choi’s research suggested that automatic enrollment and escalation and could have a sizeable impact on savings. Now he and his co-authors have looked at these programs again and found that under real-world conditions, the effect on savings is much smaller than expected.

An illustration of a piggy bank-shaped hot air balloon that can't get off the ground
  • When Do Ads Become Too Deceptive?

    Yale SOM’s Deborah Small and her co-authors examine how people judge the ethical acceptability of ads for charities, and find that they are much more bothered by artificiality than objectification or exaggeration—a finding with implications for advertisers of all kinds.

    An illustration of a camera crew shooting an ad with a cardboard cutout
  • The Fed Is Cutting Rates Soon. Should I Wait to Get a Loan?

    Many homebuyers and other borrowers incorrectly believe that they get a lower rate by waiting until a cut becomes official, according to Prof. Kelly Shue. This misconception is so widespread that it can undercut the effectiveness of Fed monetary policy.

    Mortgage rates in the window of a Bank of America office
  • Seeing Peer Ratings Pushes Professionals to Align Their Evaluations

    New research from Yale SOM’s Tristan Botelho reveals that even savvy professionals tend to defer to the ratings given by their peers who evaluated before them.

    An illustration of people lined up to select a star rating
  • Can Reflection Dislodge a Faulty Intuition?

    Sometimes our gut is right. But a new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Shane Frederick shows that when it’s not, the erroneous intuition can be difficult to overrid.

    An illustration of two women looking at a bat and ball, one with a lightbulb over her head and the other reflecting carefully on math
  • What We Get Wrong about the Effects of Population Growth

    New research co-authored by Professor Jason Dana finds that people over-focus on increased consumption without considering the positive effects of increased productivity.

    An illustration of bunches of grapes in which each grape is a human face
  • CEOs Invest Less in Corporate Social Responsibility When Their Own Money Is At Stake

    A study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Kelly Shue finds that when CEOs have a larger financial stake in their companies, or when they face stronger shareholder oversight, they cut back spending on corporate social responsibility efforts.

    An illustration of a CEO looking at stock prices and hesitating to write a check
  • The Best Leaders Use Intuition

    In an excerpt from her new book, Yale SOM’s Emma Seppälä writes that drawing on instinct as well as analysis can help us make better decisions.

    An illustration of butterflies around a woman's face, with a human figure on top of one of them
  • Can ChatGPT Accelerate Social Science Research? 

    Yale SOM’s Balázs Kovács and his co-authors spent years designing a computer-based method to measure “typicality.” In a new study, they found that ChatGPT could duplicate their results at a fraction of the cost.

    An illustration of researchers watching a robot write on a blackboard
  • Raise the Bar: Research-Based Ideas to Improve Your 2024

    Harness your own creativity, learn to leverage Chat GPT, and have some fun are three of the suggestions from our faculty to help you make your new year healthier, more rewarding, and more prosperous.

    illustration of a person climbing a bar chart
  • Our Most-Read Stories of 2023

    This year, Yale SOM research examined sustainable investing, the dynamics of social media, the role of race in school discipline, and the complexities of airline pricing. And faculty offered expertise on issues in the news, including the changing workplace, noncompete agreements, the politics of ESG investing, the effectiveness of masks, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, and the Barbie movie phenomenon.

    A collage of illustrations and photographs