More from the Author

• Article | Journal of Experimental Psychology: General | April 2019

  Mitigating Malicious Envy: Why Successful Individuals Should Reveal Their Failures

  Alison Wood Brooks, Karen Huang, Nicole Abi-Esber, Ryan W. Buell, Laura Huang and Brian Hall

  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 malicious envy in observers: revealing one’s failures. Despite a general reluctance to reveal one’s failures—as they are happening and after they have occurred—across four experiments, we find that revealing both successes and failures encountered on the path to success (compared to revealing only successes) decreases observers’ malicious envy. This effect holds regardless of the discloser’s status and cannot be explained by a decrease in perceived status of the individual. Then, in a field experiment at an entrepreneurial pitch competition, where pride displays are common and stakes are high, we find suggestive evidence that learning about the failures of a successful entrepreneur decreases observers’ malicious envy while increasing their benign envy in addition to decreasing their perceptions of the entrepreneur’s hubristic pride (i.e., arrogance) while increasing their perceptions of the entrepreneur’s authentic pride (i.e., confidence). These findings align with previous work on the social-functional relation of envy and pride. Taken together, our results highlight how revealing failures encountered on the way to success can be a counterintuitive yet effective interpersonal emotion regulation strategy.

  Keywords: Emotions; Perception; Interpersonal Communication; Communication Strategy;

  Citation:

  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.  View Details

  CiteView DetailsFind at Harvard Read Now

  Related

• Article | Harvard Journal on Legislation | Winter 2019

  From the Digital to the Physical: Federal Limitations on Regulating Online Marketplaces

  Online marketplaces have transformed how we shop, travel, and interact with the world. Yet, their unique innovations also present a panoply of challenges for communities and states. Surprisingly, federal laws are chief among those challenges despite the fact that online marketplaces facilitate transactions traditionally regulated at the local level. In this article, we survey the federal laws that frame the situation, especially §230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), a 1996 law largely meant to protect online platforms from defamation lawsuits. The CDA has been stretched beyond recognition to prevent all manner of prudent regulation. We offer specific suggestions to correct this misinterpretation to assure that state and local governments can appropriately respond to the digital activities that impact physical realities.

  Keywords: marketplaces; peer to peer; sharing economy; decentralized; regulation; preemption; Markets; Internet; Government Legislation; Laws and Statutes; United States;

  Citation:

  Edelman, Benjamin, and Abbey Stemler. "From the Digital to the Physical: Federal Limitations on Regulating Online Marketplaces." Harvard Journal on Legislation 56, no. 1 (Winter 2019): 141–197.  View Details

  CiteView DetailsFind at Harvard Read Now

  Related

• Article | Antitrust Chronicle | August 2018

  An Introduction to the Competition Law and Economics of 'Free'

  Benjamin Edelman and Damien Geradin

  Many of the largest and most successful businesses today rely on providing services at no charge to at least a portion of their users. For consumers, it is easy to celebrate free service. At least in the short term, free services are often high quality, and users find a zero price virtually irresistible. But long-term assessments could differ, particularly if the free service reduces quality and consumer choice. In this short paper, we examine these concerns.

  Keywords: Cost; Quality; Competition; Economics;

  Citation:

  Edelman, Benjamin, and Damien Geradin. "An Introduction to the Competition Law and Economics of 'Free'." Antitrust Chronicle (Summer 2018).  View Details

  CiteView Details Read Now

  Related