Skip to main content

Behavioral

Can Holiday Shopping Boycotts Make a Difference?

We asked Yale SOM’s Zoe Chance, an expert on consumer behavior and persuasion, what makes boycotts effective and how companies should respond.

A shopping cart in a Target parking lot
  • When Charitable Organizations Thank Donors, Should They Ask for More?

    For charitable organizations that rely on donors for financial support, there is a delicate art to asking for gifts and expressing gratitude.

    Speech bubbles reading "Thank you!" and "Just one more thing..."
  • How Will We Tell the Story of COVID-19?

    We asked Yale SOM’s Robert Shiller, whose latest book is 'Narrative Economics,' to tell us what collective stories are forming around the pandemic and what they might mean for our economic future.

    Parents waiting to receive meals at Byrd Middle School in Sun Valley, California, on April 17, 2020. Photo: Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images.
  • Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral

    Nobel Prize-winning Yale economist Robert Shiller examines how the stories we tell about our lives and our society can spread from person to person, changing shared perceptions of events and shaping economic behavior.

    Robert Shiller superimposed over images of newspapers from during the global financial crisis
  • Why a Pandemic Leads to Panic Buying

    We asked Yale SOM’s Nathan Novemsky, an expert in the psychology of judgment and decision-making, for his thoughts on how consumers are behaving during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they’re likely to view companies’ actions in the aftermath.

    A shopper confronting empty shelves at a grocery store in Wassenaar, The Netherlands, on March 14, 2020. Photo: Michel Porro/Getty Images.
  • New Study Shows that Trust Can Last

    A new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Florian Ederer explores how the trust we place in one another is affected by our ability to communicate and by the passage of time.

    Illustration of two people with pockets full of money shaking hands in front of clock
  • How Not to Hate the Holidays 

    We asked Nathan Novemsky, a social psychologist and a professor of marketing at Yale SOM, what the research says about avoiding tension and creating positive memories.

    https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/three-questions-prof-gal-zauberman-on-the-psychology-of-taking-vacation-photos
  • Admitting a Purchase Mistake Makes Online Reviews More Persuasive

    Yale SOM’s Taly Reich has conducted a series of studies exploring the surprising value of mistakes. In her latest paper, she and her co-author show that shoppers are more likely to purchase a product after reading a review that describes making a prior purchase mistake.

    A customer returns a package at an Amazon Locker location in a Whole Foods Market grocery store in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Photo: Tada Images/Alamy Stock Photo.
  • We’re Not Sure What Authenticity Is, But We Know We Like It

    Foodies, employees, and art lovers all prize authenticity—but each means something a little different when they say that something or someone is authentic.

    A man inspecting a diamond using a magnifying glass, with a trash can full of discarded diamonds behind him
  • What We Talk about When We Talk about Stock Market Crashes

    Yale SOM’s Robert Shiller examines how the stock market rise of the 1920s, the crash of 1929, and the Great Depression that followed came to be seen as a tale of recklessness and divine punishment.

    Messengers from brokerage houses crowd around a newspaper after the stock market crash on October 24, 1929. Photo: by Eddie Jackson/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images.
  • A Few Seconds of Speech Sparks Class Bias in Hiring

    New research by Yale SOM’s Michael Kraus shows that people can accurately assess a stranger’s socioeconomic position based on brief speech patterns and that these snap perceptions influence hiring managers in ways that favor job applicants from higher social classes.

    A green pear with a green speech bubble and a red apple with a red speech bubble