Behavioral

When you’re trying to lose weight, boost your grades, or improve your golf game, is comparing yourself to a top performer discouraging or motivating?

Stephan Gans, chief insights and analytics officer for PepsiCo, makes the case for data and judgment.

When you’re picking out a jacket or a sofa, does it matter in what order you decide on its color, style, and material? New research suggests that the sequence may change how you categorize the object and how you decide to replace it.

When companies automatically enroll employees in retirement plans, the employees save more money for their later years. But the extra savings may exact a pre-retirement toll on their finances.

Conventional wisdom says that uncertainty is bad for markets. But Yale SOM’s Stefano Giglio and his co-authors found that investors are willing to pay a premium to protect themselves only against actual market volatility, not mere uncertainty.

Yale’s Nathan Novemsky explains how to use behavioral research to give better gifts and follow through on New Year’s resolutions.

We asked Yale SOM’s Michael Kraus, a social psychologist who studies how people work together, what motivates charitable giving—and what factors stop us from giving.

Women around the world are sharing their experiences with workplace sexual harassment and abuse. Professor Zoë Chance explains the research on the subject and suggests ways that both women and male allies can take action to create lasting change.

A new study suggests that simple phone calls might be sufficient for bringing together far-flung colleagues.

New research by Professor Taly Reich and her collaborators suggests that revealing mistakes in designing or manufacturing a product can enhance consumer preference.