More from the Author

• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2018

  Channeled Attention and Stable Errors

  Tristan Gagnon-Bartsch, Matthew Rabin and Joshua Schwartzstein

  A common critique of models of mistaken beliefs is that people should recognize their error after observations they thought were unlikely. This paper develops a framework for assessing when a given error is likely to be discovered, in the sense that the error-maker will deem her mistaken theory implausible. The central premise of our approach is that people channel their attention through the lens of their mistaken theory, meaning a person may ignore or discard information her mistaken theory leads her to consider unimportant. We propose solution concepts embedding such channeled attention that predict when a mistaken theory will persist in the long run even with negligible costs of attention, and we use this framework to study the “attentional stability” of common errors and psychological biases. While many costly errors are prone to persist, in some situations a person will recognize her mistakes via “incidental learning”: when the data she values, given her mistaken theory, happen to also tell her how unlikely her theory is. We investigate which combinations of errors, situations, and preferences tend to induce such incidental learning vs. factors that render erroneous beliefs stable. We show, for example, that a person may never realize her self-control problem even when it leads to damaging behavior and may never notice the correlation in others’ advice even when that failure leads her to follow repetitive advice too much. More generally, we show that for every error there exists an environment where the error persists and is costly. Uncertainty about the optimal action paves the way for incidental learning, while being dogmatic creates a barrier.

  Keywords: Perception; Behavior; Theory; Situation or Environment;

  Citation:

  Gagnon-Bartsch, Tristan, Matthew Rabin, and Joshua Schwartzstein. "Channeled Attention and Stable Errors." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 18-108, June 2018.  View Details

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• Article | Journal of Applied Psychology | May 2018

  The Downside of Downtime: The Prevalence and Work Pacing Consequences of Idle Time at Work

  Andrew Brodsky and Teresa M. Amabile

  Although both media commentary and academic research have focused much attention on the dilemma of employees being too busy, this paper presents evidence of the opposite phenomenon, in which employees do not have enough work to fill their time and are left with hours of meaningless idle time each week. We conducted six studies that examine the prevalence and work pacing consequences of involuntary idle time. In a nationally representative cross-occupational survey (Study 1), we found that idle time occurs frequently across all occupational categories; we estimate that employers in the United States pay roughly $100 billion in wages for time that employees spend idle. Studies 2a through 3b experimentally demonstrate that there are also collateral consequences of idle time; when workers expect idle time following a task, their work pace declines and their task completion time increases. This decline reverses the well-documented deadline effect, producing a dead-time effect, whereby workers slow down as a task progresses. Our analyses of work pace patterns provide evidence for a time discounting mechanism: workers discount idle time when it is relatively distant but act to avoid it increasingly as it becomes more proximate. Finally, Study 4 demonstrates that the expectation of being able to engage in leisure activities during post-task free time (e.g., surfing the Internet) can mitigate the collateral work pace losses due to idle time. Through examination and discussion of the effects of idle time at work, we broaden theory on work pacing.

  Keywords: Employees; Working Conditions; Performance Consistency; Performance Productivity;

  Citation:

  Brodsky, Andrew, and Teresa M. Amabile. "The Downside of Downtime: The Prevalence and Work Pacing Consequences of Idle Time at Work." Journal of Applied Psychology 103, no. 5 (May 2018): 496–512.  View Details

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• Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | April 2018

  Happy UAE

  Joshua Schwartzstein

  Teaching Note for HBS No. 918-041.

  Keywords: happiness; UAE; wellbeing; wellness; Government initiatives; Happiness; Welfare or Wellbeing; Governance; Motivation and Incentives; United Arab Emirates;

  Citation:

  Schwartzstein, Joshua. "Happy UAE." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 918-042, April 2018.  View Details

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