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- Faculty Publications (193)
- April 16, 2019
- Article
Research Confirms: When Receiving Bad News, We Shoot the Messenger
By: Leslie John, Hayley Blunden and Heidi Liu
Most jobs require us at some point to deliver bad news—whether it be a minor revelation such as a recruiter telling a prospective employee that there’s no wiggle room in salary, or something major, like when a manager must fire an employee. We dread such discussions...
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John, Leslie, Hayley Blunden, and Heidi Liu. "Research Confirms: When Receiving Bad News, We Shoot the Messenger." Harvard Business Review (website) (April 16, 2019).
- April 2019
- Article
Mitigating Malicious Envy: Why Successful Individuals Should Reveal Their Failures
People often feel malicious envy, a destructive interpersonal emotion, when they compare themselves to successful peers. Across three online experiments and a field experiment of entrepreneurs, we identify an interpersonal strategy that can mitigate feelings of...
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Brooks, Alison Wood, Karen Huang, Nicole Abi-Esber, Ryan W. Buell, Laura Huang, and Brian Hall. "Mitigating Malicious Envy: Why Successful Individuals Should Reveal Their Failures." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 148, no. 4 (April 2019): 667–687.
- April 2019
- Article
Shooting the Messenger
By: Leslie John, Hayley Blunden and Heidi Liu
Eleven experiments provide evidence that people have a tendency to “shoot the messenger,” deeming innocent bearers of bad news unlikeable. In a preregistered lab experiment, participants rated messengers who delivered bad news from a random drawing as relatively...
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Keywords:
Judgment;
Communication;
Sense-making;
Attribution;
Disclosure;
Interpersonal Communication;
Perception;
Judgments;
Motivation and Incentives
John, Leslie, Hayley Blunden, and Heidi Liu. "Shooting the Messenger." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 148, no. 4 (April 2019): 644–666.
- 2022
- Working Paper
Mitigating the Negative Effects of Customer Anxiety Through Access to Human Contact
By: Michelle A. Kinch and Ryan W. Buell
Prior research in social psychology has shown that when people feel anxious, they seek advice from others. However, companies that operate in high-anxiety settings (like financial services, health care, and education) are increasingly deploying self-service...
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Keywords:
Anxiety;
Self-service;
Empirical Operations;
Behavioral Operations;
Customers;
Emotions;
Service Delivery;
Interpersonal Communication;
Customer Satisfaction;
Trust
Kinch, Michelle A., and Ryan W. Buell. "Mitigating the Negative Effects of Customer Anxiety Through Access to Human Contact." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-089, February 2019. (Revised November 2023.)
- Article
Seeker Beware: The Interpersonal Costs of Ignoring Advice
Prior advice research has focused on why people rely on (or ignore) advice and its impact on judgment accuracy. We expand the consideration of advice-seeking outcomes by investigating the interpersonal consequences of advice seekers’ decisions. Across nine studies, we...
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Keywords:
Advice;
Advice Seeking;
Expertise;
Impression Management;
Wisdom Of Crowds;
Interpersonal Communication;
Relationships;
Behavior;
Experience and Expertise;
Perception;
Judgments;
Outcome or Result
Blunden, Hayley, Jennifer M. Logg, Alison Wood Brooks, Leslie John, and Francesca Gino. "Seeker Beware: The Interpersonal Costs of Ignoring Advice." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 150 (January 2019): 83–100.
- December 2018 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Fishbowl: Scaling Up
By: Leslie K. John
Fishbowl is a social media app that allows professionals to connect with other relevant professionals both within their company and across industry. Unlike many other social media apps, on which users typically present idealized portraits of themselves, on Fishbowl,...
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Keywords:
Communication Technologies;
Customer Value;
Value Chain;
Interpersonal Communication;
Talent and Talent Management;
Customer Value and Value Chain;
Entrepreneurship;
Business Model;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Marketing Strategy;
Advertising;
Product Marketing;
Digital Platforms;
Consumer Behavior;
Network Effects;
Emotions;
Motivation and Incentives;
Trust;
Applications and Software;
Technology Adoption;
Social Media;
Communications Industry;
Communications Industry;
Communications Industry;
Communications Industry;
Communications Industry;
United States
John, Leslie K. "Fishbowl: Scaling Up." Harvard Business School Case 919-013, December 2018. (Revised February 2020.) (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.)
- June 2018
- Case
Candor at Clever
By: Ethan Bernstein and Om Lala
Clever, a high-growth EdTech company based in San Francisco, had grown quickly in market share and headcount. As with many high-growth companies, however, early employees (many of whom had never managed people before) had been given the opportunity to manage teams, and...
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Keywords:
Performance Feedback;
Talent Development And Retention;
Talent Management;
Feedback;
Difficult Conversations;
Radical Candor;
Scaling Start-ups;
Scaling And Growth;
Developing Effective Managers;
Effective Managers;
First-time Managers;
Kim Scott;
Clever;
Bay Area;
Silicon Valley;
Interpersonal Communication;
Talent and Talent Management;
Human Resources;
Leadership Development;
Management Practices and Processes;
Management Skills;
Management Style;
Organizations;
Organizational Culture;
Performance Evaluation;
Conflict and Resolution;
Technology Industry;
Education Industry;
San Francisco;
United States
Bernstein, Ethan, and Om Lala. "Candor at Clever." Harvard Business School Case 418-087, June 2018.
- 2018
- Chapter
How the Other Half Thinks: The Psychology of Advising
By: Hayley Blunden and Francesca Gino
This chapter integrates research on advice interactions, motivations for advising, and the psychological consequences of serving in an advisor role to develop a more comprehensive perspective on the psychology of advising. By connecting this work, which spans various...
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Keywords:
Advice;
Advice Giving;
Advisor;
Self-other;
Helping;
Interpersonal Communication;
Cognition and Thinking;
Social Psychology
Blunden, Hayley, and Francesca Gino. "How the Other Half Thinks: The Psychology of Advising." Chap. 3 in The Oxford Handbook of Advice, edited by E.L. MacGeorge and L.M. Van Swol, 43–68. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
- June 2018
- Article
Will a Five-Minute Discussion Change Your Mind? A Countrywide Experiment on Voter Choice in France
By: Vincent Pons
This paper provides the first estimate of the effect of door-to-door canvassing on actual electoral outcomes, via a countrywide experiment embedded in François Hollande's campaign in the 2012 French presidential election. While existing experiments randomized...
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Pons, Vincent. "Will a Five-Minute Discussion Change Your Mind? A Countrywide Experiment on Voter Choice in France." American Economic Review 108, no. 6 (June 2018): 1322–1363. (Also Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-079, January 2016.)
- May 2018
- Article
Advice Giving: A Subtle Pathway to Power
By: M. Schaerer, L.P. Tost, L. Huang, F. Gino and R. P. Larrick
We propose that interpersonal behaviors can activate feelings of power, and we examine this idea in the context of advice giving. Specifically, we show a) that advice giving is an interpersonal behavior that enhances individuals’ sense of power and b) that those who...
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Schaerer, M., L.P. Tost, L. Huang, F. Gino, and R. P. Larrick. "Advice Giving: A Subtle Pathway to Power." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 44, no. 5 (May 2018): 746–761.
- May–June 2018
- Article
The Surprising Power of Questions
By: Alison Wood Brooks and Leslie K. John
Much of an executive’s workday is spent asking others for information—requesting status updates from a team leader, for example, or questioning a counterpart in a tense negotiation. Yet unlike professionals such as litigators, journalists, and doctors, who are taught...
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Keywords:
Interpersonal Communication;
Communication Strategy;
Information;
Knowledge Sharing;
Performance Effectiveness
Brooks, Alison Wood, and Leslie K. John. "The Surprising Power of Questions." Harvard Business Review 96, no. 3 (May–June 2018): 60–67.
- March 2018
- Exercise
Does It Hurt To Ask?
Does It Hurt To Ask? (DIHTA) is an interactive exercise that pairs students (in groups of two) for a brief, spontaneous, open-ended conversation during class. Each student is given instructions to ask many questions (as many as possible) or few questions (ideally zero)...
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Keywords:
Interpersonal Communication;
Communication Strategy;
Perception;
Information;
Power and Influence
Brooks, Alison Wood. "Does It Hurt To Ask?" Harvard Business School Exercise 918-037, March 2018.
- 2018
- Working Paper
Backhanded Compliments: How Negative Comparisons Undermine Flattery
By: Ovul Sezer, Alison Wood Brooks and Michael I. Norton
Seven studies (N = 2352) examine backhanded compliments—seeming praise that draws a comparison with a negative standard—a distinct self-presentation strategy with two simultaneous goals: eliciting liking (“Your speech was good…”) and conveying status (“…for a woman”)....
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Keywords:
Backhanded Compliments;
Self-presentation;
Impression Management;
Interpersonal Perception;
Liking;
Status;
Image Concern;
Interpersonal Communication;
Status and Position;
Perception;
Motivation and Incentives
Sezer, Ovul, Alison Wood Brooks, and Michael I. Norton. "Backhanded Compliments: How Negative Comparisons Undermine Flattery." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 18-082, February 2018.
- January 29, 2018
- Article
How to Build Trust with Colleagues You Rarely See
By: Tsedal Neeley
Building trust is key to success for any organization. But that can be tricky when it comes to colleagues that you only interact with virtually. What does it take to build trust when you can’t meet in person? In this piece, the author suggests that professionals should...
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Neeley, Tsedal. "How to Build Trust with Colleagues You Rarely See." Harvard Business Review (website) (January 29, 2018).
- Article
Humblebragging: A Distinct—and Ineffective—Self-Presentation Strategy
By: Ovul Sezer, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton
Self-presentation is a fundamental aspect of social life, with myriad critical outcomes dependent on others’ impressions. We identify and offer the first empirical investigation of a prevalent, yet understudied, self-presentation strategy: humblebragging. Across nine...
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Keywords:
Humblebragging;
Impression Management;
Self-presentation;
Interpersonal Perception;
Competence;
Liking;
Sincerity;
Behavior;
Perception;
Interpersonal Communication;
Personal Characteristics
Sezer, Ovul, Francesca Gino, and Michael I. Norton. "Humblebragging: A Distinct—and Ineffective—Self-Presentation Strategy." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 114, no. 1 (January 2018): 52–74.
- Article
A Fair Game? Racial Bias and Repeated Interaction between NBA Coaches and Players
By: Letian Zhang
There is strong evidence of racial bias in organizations but little understanding of how it changes with repeated interaction. This study proposes that repeated interaction has the potential to reduce racial bias, but its moderating effects are limited to the treatment...
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Keywords:
Discrimination;
Bias;
Interaction;
NBA;
Prejudice and Bias;
Race;
Equality and Inequality;
Interpersonal Communication;
Sports
Zhang, Letian. "A Fair Game? Racial Bias and Repeated Interaction between NBA Coaches and Players." Administrative Science Quarterly 62, no. 4 (December 2017): 603–625.
- December 2017
- Article
Discordant vs. Harmonious Selves: The Effects of Identity Conflict and Enhancement on Sales Performance in Employee-Customer Interactions
By: Lakshmi Ramarajan, Nancy Rothbard and Steffanie Wilk
Across multiple studies, we examine how identity conflict and enhancement within people affect performance in tasks that involve interactions between people through two mechanisms: role-immersion, operationalized as intrinsic motivation, and role-taking,...
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Ramarajan, Lakshmi, Nancy Rothbard, and Steffanie Wilk. "Discordant vs. Harmonious Selves: The Effects of Identity Conflict and Enhancement on Sales Performance in Employee-Customer Interactions." Academy of Management Journal 60, no. 6 (December 2017): 2208–2238.
- September 2017
- Case
Sensing (and Monetizing) Happiness at Hitachi
By: Ethan Bernstein and Stephanie Marton
Inspired by research linking happiness and productivity, Hitachi had invested in developing new “people analytics” technologies to help companies increase employee happiness. Hitachi had begun manufacturing high-tech badges that quantify a wearer’s activity patterns....
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Keywords:
People Analytics;
Japan;
Sociometers;
Wearables;
Interpersonal Communication;
Human Resources;
Happiness;
Technology Industry;
Japan
Bernstein, Ethan, and Stephanie Marton. "Sensing (and Monetizing) Happiness at Hitachi." Harvard Business School Case 418-019, September 2017.
- 2017
- Working Paper
Shopping for Confirmation: How Disconfirming Feedback Shapes Social Networks
By: Paul Green Jr., Francesca Gino and Bradley Staats
Many organizations employ interpersonal feedback processes as a structured means of informing and motivating employee improvement. Ample evidence suggests that these feedback processes are largely ineffective, and despite a wealth of prescriptive literature, these...
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Keywords:
Developmental Feedback;
Self-concept;
Positive Illusions;
Social Network;
Threat;
Identity;
Social and Collaborative Networks;
Behavior;
Performance;
Social Media
Green, Paul, Jr., Francesca Gino, and Bradley Staats. "Shopping for Confirmation: How Disconfirming Feedback Shapes Social Networks." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 18-028, September 2017.
- September 2017
- Article
It Doesn't Hurt to Ask: Question-asking Increases Liking
By: K. Huang, M. Yeomans, A.W. Brooks, J. Minson and F. Gino
Conversation is a fundamental human experience, one that is necessary to pursue intrapersonal and interpersonal goals across myriad contexts, relationships, and modes of communication. In the current research, we isolate the role of an understudied conversational...
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Keywords:
Question-asking;
Liking;
Responsiveness;
Conversation;
Natural Language Processing;
Interpersonal Communication;
Behavior
Huang, K., M. Yeomans, A.W. Brooks, J. Minson, and F. Gino. "It Doesn't Hurt to Ask: Question-asking Increases Liking." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 113, no. 3 (September 2017): 430–452.