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• 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

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• 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

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | April 2018

  Happy UAE

  Joshua Schwartzstein, Brian J. Hall, Tiffany Y. Chang, Karim Sameh and Alpana Thapar

  This case centers on the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) national goal of raising the happiness of its residents and visitors through ambitious government initiatives. They combined this bold national goal with an accountability structure (incentive plan) built on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), as more typically done at a company level. A key case protagonist is Ohood Al Roumi: the UAE and the world's first dedicated Minister of State for Happiness and Well-being. She was assigned to this role by Sheikh Mohammed, the Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Al Roumi attempted to drive national progress towards happiness in UAE society through several means: measuring happiness in the community and happiness with government services, aligning and coordinating government entities towards promoting happiness and positivity at work, and promoting happiness as a lifestyle more generally. The case details the UAE's progress through February 2018. The class discussion gives students a chance to reflect on the role of government in promoting happiness and well-being and how a government could go about encouraging happiness. The UAE in effect implemented a complex incentive scheme with the aim of coordinating attempts to increase happiness and well-being. The connection between the UAE's efforts and incentive schemes emerges in the course of the class discussion, which enables students to reflect on concrete managerial implications of the analysis.

  Keywords: Happiness; Welfare or Wellbeing; Governance; Motivation and Incentives; United Arab Emirates;

  Citation:

  Schwartzstein, Joshua, Brian J. Hall, Tiffany Y. Chang, Karim Sameh, and Alpana Thapar. "Happy UAE." Harvard Business School Case 918-041, April 2018.  View Details

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