Leslie K. John

Leslie K. John is a Marvin Bower Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Currently, she teaches on the topics of Negotiation, Marketing and Behavioral Economics in various Executive Education courses, including in the Program for Leadership Development. She has also taught extensively in both the required and elective MBA curricula.

Professor John is a behavioral scientist who studies how people make decisions, and the wisdom or error of those decisions. In her primary line of research, Dr. John studies privacy decision-making, identifying what drives people to share or withhold personal information, as well as their reactions to firms’ and employers’ use of their personal data. In another line of research, Dr. John studies health decision-making, devising psychologically-informed interventions to help people make healthier choices.

Her work has been published in leading academic journals including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Psychological Science, Management Science, The Journal of Marketing Research, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. It has received media coverage in outlets including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Time Magazine. She has received numerous awards, including from the Association for Psychological Science and the Marketing Science Institute; and was named a Wired Innovation Fellow.

Professor John holds a Ph.D. in behavioral decision research from Carnegie Mellon University, where she also earned an M.Sc. in psychology and behavioral decision research. She completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Waterloo.

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Journal Articles

Article | Harvard Business Review (website)

How Asking Multiple People for Advice Can Backfire

Hayley Blunden, Jennifer M. Logg, Alison Wood Brooks, Leslie John and Francesca Gino

Citation:

Blunden, Hayley, Jennifer M. Logg, Alison Wood Brooks, Leslie John, and Francesca Gino. "How Asking Multiple People for Advice Can Backfire." Harvard Business Review (website) (May 10, 2019). View Details

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Article | Current Opinion in Psychology

Tales of Two Motives: Disclosure and Concealment

L.K. John, M. Slepian and D. Tamir

We posit that the desire to disclose personal information, and the desire to conceal it, are related yet distinct psychological motives. People often wish to conceal information, such as embarrassing aspects of the self. Yet people also seek to reveal information, such as a laudable achievement. These motives often go hand in hand. However, sometimes people experience both desires simultaneously. This idea—that people can simultaneously feel both desires—helps to account for the seemingly paradoxical choices people make with respect to the care and control of their personal data—i.e., information privacy.

Keywords: disclosure; privacy; Information; Motivation and Incentives;

Citation:

John, L.K., M. Slepian, and D. Tamir. "Tales of Two Motives: Disclosure and Concealment." Special Issue on Privacy and Disclosure, Online and in Social Interactions edited by L. John, D. Tamir, M. Slepian. Current Opinion in Psychology 31 (February 2020). View Details

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Article | BMJ: British Medical Journal

Effect of Revealing Authors' Conflicts of Interests in Peer Review: Randomized Controlled Trial

Leslie K. John, George Loewenstein, Andrew Marder and Michael Callaham

Objective: To assess the impact of disclosing authors’ conflict of interest declarations to peer reviewers at a medical journal.
Design: Randomised controlled trial.

Setting: The study was conducted within the manuscript review process at the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Participants: Reviewers (n=885 reviewers) who reviewed manuscripts submitted between June 2, 2014 and January 23, 2018 inclusive (n=1480 manuscripts).

Intervention: Reviewers were randomised to either receive (treatment) or to not receive (control) authors’ full ICMJE-format conflict of interest disclosures before performing their review. Reviewers rated the manuscripts as usual on eight quality ratings and were then surveyed to obtain “counterfactual scores”—i.e., the scores they believed they would have given had they been assigned to the opposite arm—as well as attitudes toward conflicts of interest. .

Main outcome measures: The primary outcome measure was the overall quality score that reviewers assigned to the manuscript upon submitting their review (1 to 5 scale). The trial had 99% power to detect a .4 point difference, determined previously by editors to be the minimal significance threshold for a difference in score that would influence their editorial decision. Secondary outcomes looked at the scores the reviewers submitted for the seven more specific quality ratings as well as counterfactual scores elicited in the follow-up survey.

Results: Providing authors’ conflict of interest disclosures did not affect reviewers’ ratings of manuscript quality (Mcontrol=2.70 out of 5, SD=1.11; Mtreatment=2.74 out of 5, SD=1.13; mean difference=0.04, 95% CI=-0.05 to 0.14), even for manuscripts with disclosed conflicts (Mcontrol=2.85 out of 5, SD=1.12; Mtreatment=2.96 out of 5, SD=1.16; mean difference=0.11, 95% CI=-0.05 to 0.26). Similarly, there was no effect of the treatment on any of the other seven quality ratings the reviewers assigned. Reviewers acknowledged conflicts of interest as an important issue and believed they could correct for them when disclosed. Yet, their counterfactual scores did not differ from actual scores (Mactual=2.69, Mcounterfactual=2.67; difference in means=0.02, 95% CI=-0.02 to -0.01). When conflicts were reported, a comparison of different source types (e.g., government, for-profit corporation, etc.) found no difference in impact.

Conclusions: Current ethical standards require conflict of interest disclosure for all scientific reports. As currently implemented, this practice demonstrated no impact on any quality ratings of real manuscripts being evaluated for publication by real peer reviewers.

Keywords: conflicts of interest; peer review; randomized controlled trial; scientific publication; Conflict of Interests; Journals and Magazines; Science;

Citation:

John, Leslie K., George Loewenstein, Andrew Marder, and Michael Callaham. "Effect of Revealing Authors' Conflicts of Interests in Peer Review: Randomized Controlled Trial." BMJ: British Medical Journal 367, no. 8221 (November 9, 2019). View Details

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Article | Harvard Business Review (website)

Research: Changing Your Mind Makes You Seem Intelligent

Martha Jeong, Leslie K. John, Francesca Gino and Laura Huang

Citation:
Jeong, Martha, Leslie K. John, Francesca Gino, and Laura Huang. "Research: Changing Your Mind Makes You Seem Intelligent." Harvard Business Review (website) (September 11, 2019). View Details

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Article | Journal of Marketing Research (JMR)

Why Prosocial Referral Incentives Work: The Interplay of Reputational Benefits and Action Costs

Rachel Gershon, Cynthia Cryder and Leslie K. John

While selfish incentives typically outperform prosocial incentives, in the context of customer referral rewards, prosocial incentives can be more effective. Companies frequently offer “selfish” (i.e., sender-benefiting) referral incentives, offering customers financial incentives for recruiting new customers. However, companies can alternatively offer “prosocial” (i.e., recipient-benefiting) referral incentives. In two field experiments and an incentive-compatible lab experiment, recipient-benefiting referrals recruited more new customers than sender-benefiting referrals. In five additional experiments, we test a process account that invokes two countervailing forces: reputational benefits and action costs. First, at the referral stage, senders anticipate reputational benefits for referring when recipients receive a reward. As a result, recipient-benefiting referrals are just as effective as sender-benefiting referrals at this stage. Second, at the uptake stage, recipient-benefiting referrals are more effective than sender-benefiting referrals: recipient-benefiting referrals directly incentivize uptake (i.e., signing up for a new product or service), which is a high-effort action in referral programs. The preponderance of sender-benefiting (vs. recipient-benefiting) referral offers in the marketplace suggests these effects are unanticipated by marketers who design incentive schemes.

Keywords: incentives; prosocial behavior; judgment and decision-making; referral rewards; Motivation and Incentives; Consumer Behavior; Decision Making;

Citation:

Gershon, Rachel, Cynthia Cryder, and Leslie K. John. "Why Prosocial Referral Incentives Work: The Interplay of Reputational Benefits and Action Costs." Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 57, no. 1 (February 2020): 156–172. View Details

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Article | Marketing Science | Forthcoming

Lifting the Veil: The Benefits of Cost Transparency

Bhavya Mohan, Ryan W. Buell and Leslie K. John

Firms do not typically disclose information on their costs to produce a good to consumers. However, we provide evidence of when and why doing so can increase consumers’ purchase interest. Specifically, building on the psychology of disclosure and trust, we posit that cost transparency, insofar as it represents an act of sensitive disclosure, fosters trust. In turn, this heightened trust enhances consumers’ willingness to purchase from that firm. In support of this account, we present six studies, conducted in the field and in the lab. A pre-registered field experiment indicated that diners were 21.1% more likely to buy a bowl of chicken noodle soup when a sign revealing its ingredients also included the cafeteria’s costs to make it. Five subsequent online experiments replicated and extended this basic effect, providing evidence of when and why it occurs. Taken together, these studies imply that the proactive revelation of costs can improve a firm’s bottom line.

Keywords: cost transparency; disclosure; field experiment; Cost; Trust; Consumer Behavior;

Citation:
Mohan, Bhavya, Ryan W. Buell, and Leslie K. John. "Lifting the Veil: The Benefits of Cost Transparency." Marketing Science (forthcoming). View Details

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Article | Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

The Self-Presentational Consequences of Upholding One's Stance in Spite of the Evidence

Leslie John, Martha Jeong, Francesca Gino and Laura Huang

Five studies explore the self-presentational consequences of refusing to “back down” – that is, upholding a stance despite evidence of its inaccuracy. Using data from an entrepreneurial pitch competition, Study 1 shows that entrepreneurs tend not to back down even though investors are more impressed by entrepreneurs who do. Next, in two sets of experiments, we unpack the psychology underlying why actors refuse to publicly back down and investigate observers’ impressions of those actors. Specifically, we show that observers view people who refuse to back down as confident but unintelligent, and these perceptions drive consequential decisions about such refusers, such as whether to invest in their ideas (Studies 1 & 2) or whether to hire them (Study 3). Although actors can intuit these effects (Study 4), this understanding is not reflected in their behavior because they are concerned with saving face (Study 5).

Keywords: Self-presentation; belief perseverance; judgment; confidence; persuasion; Personal Characteristics; Behavior; Perception; Decision Making; Outcome or Result;

Citation:

John, Leslie, Martha Jeong, Francesca Gino, and Laura Huang. "The Self-Presentational Consequences of Upholding One's Stance in Spite of the Evidence." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 154 (September 2019): 1–14. View Details

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Article | JAMA Network Open

Effect of Different Financial Incentive Structures on Promoting Physical Activity Among Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Chethan Bachireddy, Andrew Joung, Leslie K. John, Francesca Gino, Bradford Tuckfield, Luca Foschini and Katherine L. Milkman

Importance: Few adults engage in recommended levels of physical activity. Financial incentives can promote physical activity, but little is known about how their structure influences their effectiveness; for example, whether incentives are more effective if they are disbursed at a constant rate versus increasing or decreasing rates.

Objective: To determine if it is more effective to disburse fixed total incentives at a constant, increasing or decreasing rate to encourage physical activity.

Design: Two-week, four arm randomized controlled trial from June 2, 2014 to June 15, 2014. Data analyses finalized in 2018.

Setting: An online platform that automatically records daily steps of pedometer-wearing users and awards points redeemable for cash.

Participants: 3,515 users of the online platform in the lower 70th percentile of steps taken among all users pre-treatment.

Intervention: Participants were randomized to either a control group or to one of three intervention groups over two weeks. Control participants received a constant daily rate of $0.00001/step. The three intervention groups received a 20-fold incentive increase ($0.00020/step) distributed differently over two weeks—at a constant, increasing or decreasing rate. Reminder emails explaining incentive schedules were sent the day before the intervention and halfway through the two-week intervention.

Main Outcome and Measure: Change in mean daily steps during the two-week intervention and three weeks post-intervention. The study had 80% power to detect a difference of 280 steps/day during the intervention at α=0.05.

Results: During the intervention, compared to control, constant incentives generated 306.7 more steps/day (95% CI [91.5,521.9]; p=0.005), decreasing incentives generated 96.9 more steps/day (95% CI [15.3,178.5]; p=0.020), and increasing incentives generated no change (1.5; 95% CI [-81.6,84.7]; p=0.971). One week post-intervention, compared to control, only constant incentives generated significantly more steps/day (329.5; 95% CI [20.6,638.4]; p=0.037). Two and three weeks post-intervention, there were no significant differences compared to control. Overall, for each dollar spent, constant incentives generated 475.5 more steps than increasing incentives and 429.4 more steps than decreasing incentives.

Conclusions and Relevance: Financial incentives for physical activity are more effective during a payment period if offered at a constant rather than an increasing or decreasing rate. However, this effectiveness dissipates shortly after the incentives are removed.

Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT02154256
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02154256.

Keywords: physical activity; financial incentives; Motivation and Incentives; Money;

Citation:

Bachireddy, Chethan, Andrew Joung, Leslie K. John, Francesca Gino, Bradford Tuckfield, Luca Foschini, and Katherine L. Milkman. "Effect of Different Financial Incentive Structures on Promoting Physical Activity Among Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial." JAMA Network Open 2, no. 8 (August 2019): 1–13. View Details

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Article | Harvard Business Review (website)

Research Confirms: When Receiving Bad News, We Shoot the Messenger

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 even when the revelations aren’t at all our fault. It turns out that our aversion is for good reason. Our research shows that people are prone to derogating those who tell them things they don’t want to hear—we shoot the messenger.

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Perception; Judgments;

Citation:
John, Leslie, Hayley Blunden, and Heidi Liu. "Research Confirms: When Receiving Bad News, We Shoot the Messenger." Harvard Business Review (website) (April 16, 2019). View Details

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Article | Psychological Science

Using Behavioral Science to Inform the Design of Sugary Drink Portion Limit Policies: Reply to Wilson and Stolarz-Fantino (2018)

Leslie John, Grant E. Donnelly and Christina A. Roberto

In their commentary, Wilson & Stolarz-Fantino argue that specific design features of our research mean that it cannot have policy implications and that researchers “need to consider profit maximization in menu design or studies are likely to suggest ill-informed implementations.” In this reply, we respond to the specific critiques of our work with empirical data and conceptual arguments. We agree with Wilson and Stolarz-Fantino that researchers seeking to understand a policy’s influence on consumers should test predictions about which strategies firms will likely use when implementing a policy. Research, however, that demonstrates the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of an intervention even without perfectly predicting a firm’s response still has enormous value for setting policy.

Keywords: policy implementation; Food; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy;

Citation:

John, Leslie, Grant E. Donnelly, and Christina A. Roberto. "Using Behavioral Science to Inform the Design of Sugary Drink Portion Limit Policies: Reply to Wilson and Stolarz-Fantino (2018)." Psychological Science 30, no. 7 (July 2019): 1103–1105. View Details

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Article | Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Shooting the Messenger

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 unlikeable (Study 1). A second set of studies points to the specificity of the effect: Study 2A shows that it is unique to the (innocent) messenger and not mere bystanders. Study 2B shows that it is distinct from merely receiving information that one disagrees with. We suggest that people’s tendency to deem bearers of bad news as unlikeable stems in part from their desire to make sense of chance processes. Consistent with this account, receiving bad news activates the desire to sense-make (Study 3A), and in turn, activating this desire enhances the tendency to dislike bearers of bad news (Study 3B). Next, stemming from the idea that unexpected outcomes heighten the desire to sense-make, Study 4 shows that when bad news is unexpected, messenger dislike is pronounced. Finally, consistent with the notion that people fulfill the desire to sense-make by attributing agency to entities adjacent to chance events, messenger dislike is correlated with the belief that the messenger had malevolent motives (Studies 5A, 5B, & 5C). Studies 6A & 6B go further, manipulating messenger motives independently from news valence to suggest its causal role in our process account: the tendency to dislike bearers of bad news is mitigated when recipients are made aware of the benevolence of the messenger’s motives.

Keywords: judgment; communication; sense-making; attribution; disclosure; Interpersonal Communication; Perception; Judgments; Motivation and Incentives;

Citation:

John, Leslie, Hayley Blunden, and Heidi Liu. "Shooting the Messenger." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 148, no. 4 (April 2019): 644–666. View Details

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Article | Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Seeker Beware: The Interpersonal Costs of Ignoring Advice

Hayley Blunden, Jennifer M. Logg, Alison Wood Brooks, Leslie John and Francesca Gino

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 show that advisors interpersonally penalize seekers who disregard their advice, and that these reactions are especially strong among expert advisors. This penalty also drives advisor reactions to a widely-recommended advice-seeking strategy: soliciting multiple advisors to leverage the wisdom of crowds. Advisors denigrate and distance themselves from seekers who they learn consulted others, an effect mediated by perceptions that their own advice will be disregarded. Underlying these effects is an asymmetry between advisors’ and seekers’ beliefs about the purpose of the advice exchange: whereas advisors believe giving advice is more about narrowing the option set by providing direction, seekers believe soliciting advice is more about widening the option set by gathering information.

Keywords: advice; advice seeking; expertise; impression management; wisdom of crowds; Interpersonal Communication; Relationships; Behavior; Experience and Expertise; Perception; Judgments; Outcome or Result;

Citation:

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. View Details

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Article | Management Science

Procedural Justice and the Risks of Consumer Voting

Tami Kim, Leslie John, Todd Rogers and Michael I. Norton

Firms are increasingly giving consumers the vote. Eight studies demonstrate that when firms empower consumers to vote, consumers infer a series of implicit promises—even in the absence of explicit promises. We identify three implicit promises to which consumers react negatively when violated: representation (Experiments 1A–1C); consistency (Experiment 2), and non-suppression (Experiment 3). However, when firms honor these implicit promises, voting can mitigate the disappointment that arises from receiving an undesired outcome (Experiment 4). Finally, Experiment 5 identifies one instance when suppressing the vote outcome is condoned: when voters believe that the process of voting has resulted in an unacceptable outcome. More generally, we show that procedural justice plays a key mediating role in determining the relative success or failure of various empowerment initiatives—from soliciting feedback to voting. Taken together, we offer insight into how firms can realize the benefits of empowerment strategies while mitigating their risks.

Keywords: consumer empowerment; voting; procedural justice; promises; Customer Relationship Management; Voting; Perception; Fairness; Risk Management;

Citation:

Kim, Tami, Leslie John, Todd Rogers, and Michael I. Norton. "Procedural Justice and the Risks of Consumer Voting." Management Science 65, no. 11 (November 2019): 5234–5251. View Details

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Article | Journal of Consumer Research

Why Am I Seeing This Ad? The Effect of Ad Transparency on Ad Effectiveness

Tami Kim, Kate Barasz and Leslie K. John

Given the increasingly specific ways marketers can target ads, many consumers and regulators are demanding ad transparency: disclosure of how consumers’ personal information was used to generate ads. We investigate how and why ad transparency impacts ad effectiveness. Drawing on literature about offline norms of information-sharing, we posit that ad transparency backfires when it exposes marketing practices that violate norms about “information flows”—consumers’ beliefs about how their information ought to move between parties. Study 1 inductively shows that consumers deem information flows acceptable (or not) based on whether their personal information was: 1) obtained within versus outside of the website on which the ad appears and 2) stated by the consumer versus inferred by the firm (the latter of each pair being less acceptable). Studies 2 and 3 show that revealing unacceptable information flows reduces ad effectiveness, which is driven by increasing consumers’ relative concern for their privacy over desire for the personalization that such targeting affords. Study 4 shows the moderating role of platform trust: when consumers trust a platform, revealing acceptable information flows increases ad effectiveness. Studies 5a and 5b, conducted in the field with a loyalty program website (i.e., a trusted platform), demonstrate this benefit of transparency.

Keywords: Online Advertising; Customization and Personalization; Information; Trust; Performance Effectiveness;

Citation:

Kim, Tami, Kate Barasz, and Leslie K. John. "Why Am I Seeing This Ad? The Effect of Ad Transparency on Ad Effectiveness." Journal of Consumer Research 45, no. 5 (February 2019): 906–932. View Details

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Article | Harvard Business Review (website)

Uninformed Consent

Leslie K. John

Companies want access to more and more of your personal data—from where you are to what’s in your DNA. Can they unlock its value while respecting consumers’ privacy?

Keywords: personal data; privacy; Customers; Data and Data Sets; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;

Citation:
John, Leslie K. "Uninformed Consent." Special Issue on The Big Idea: Tracked. Harvard Business Review (website) (September–October 2018). View Details

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Article | Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

When and Why Randomized Response Techniques (Fail to) Elicit the Truth

Leslie K. John, George Loewenstein, Alessandro Acquisti and Joachim Vosgerau

By adding random noise to individual responses, randomized response techniques (RRTs) are intended to enhance privacy protection and encourage honest disclosure of sensitive information. Empirical findings on their success in doing so are, however, mixed. In nine experiments, we show that the noise introduced by RRTs can make respondents concerned that innocuous responses will be interpreted as admissions, and, as a result, yield prevalence estimates that are lower than direct questioning (Studies 1–4, 5A, & 6), less accurate than direct questioning (Studies 1, 3, 4B, & 5A), and even nonsensical (i.e., negative, Studies 3–6). Studies 2A and 2B show that the paradox is eliminated when the target behavior is socially desirable, even when it is merely framed as such. Study 3 shows the paradox is driven by respondents’ concerns over response misinterpretation. A simple modification designed to reduce concerns over response misinterpretation reduces the problem (Studies 4 & 5), particularly when such concerns are heightened (Studies 5 & 6).

Keywords: truth-telling; Lying; privacy; information disclosure; survey research; Surveys; Attitudes; Behavior;

Citation:

John, Leslie K., George Loewenstein, Alessandro Acquisti, and Joachim Vosgerau. "When and Why Randomized Response Techniques (Fail to) Elicit the Truth." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 148 (September 2018): 101–123. View Details

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Article | Harvard Business Review

The Surprising Power of Questions

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 how to ask questions as an essential part of their training, few executives think of questioning as a skill that can be honed—or consider how their own answers to questions could make conversations more productive.
That’s a missed opportunity. Questioning is a powerful tool for unlocking value in companies: It spurs learning and the exchange of ideas, it fuels innovation and better performance, and it builds trust among team members. And it can mitigate business risk by uncovering unforeseen pitfalls and hazards.
Several techniques can enhance the power and efficacy of queries: Favor follow-up questions, know when to keep questions open ended, get the sequence right, use the right tone, and pay attention to group dynamics.

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Communication Strategy; Information; Knowledge Sharing; Performance Effectiveness;

Citation:

Brooks, Alison Wood, and Leslie K. John. "The Surprising Power of Questions." Harvard Business Review 96, no. 3 (May–June 2018): 60–67. View Details

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Article | Psychological Science

The Effect of Graphic Warnings on Sugary-Drink Purchasing

Grant Donnelly, Laura Y. Zatz, Daniel Svirsky and Leslie John

Governments have proposed text warning labels to decrease consumption of sugary drinks – a contributor to chronic diseases like diabetes. However, they may be less effective than more evocative, graphic warning labels. We field-tested the effectiveness of graphic warning labels (vs. text warning labels, calorie labels, and no labels), provided insight into psychological mechanisms driving effectiveness, and assessed consumer sentiment. Study 1 indicated that graphic warning labels reduced the share of sugary drinks purchased in a cafeteria, from 21.4% at baseline to 18.2%—an effect driven by substitution of water for sugary drinks. Study 2 showed that graphic warning labels work by heightening negative affect and prompting consideration of health consequences. Study 3 indicated that public support for graphic warning labels can be increased by conveying effectiveness information. These findings could spur more effective labeling policies that: facilitate healthier choices, do not decrease overall beverage purchases, and are publicly accepted.

Keywords: decision making; food; health; Policy Making; preferences; Health; Information; Labels; Consumer Behavior; Performance Effectiveness;

Citation:

Donnelly, Grant, Laura Y. Zatz, Daniel Svirsky, and Leslie John. "The Effect of Graphic Warnings on Sugary-Drink Purchasing." Psychological Science 29, no. 8 (August 2018): 1321–1333. View Details

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Article | Customer Needs and Solutions

How Context Affects Choice

Raphael Thomadsen, Robert P. Rooderkerk, On Amir, Neeraj Arora, Bryan Bollinger, Karsten Hansen, Leslie John, Wendy Liu, Aner Sela, Vishal Singh, K. Sudhir and Wendy Wood

Due to its origins in the literature on judgment and decision-making, context effects in marketing are construed exclusively in terms of how choices deviate from utility maximization principles as a function of how choices are presented (e.g., framing, sequence, composition). This limits our understanding of a range of other relevant context effects on choice. This paper broadens the scope of context effects to include social (e.g., with friends or family) and situational factors (e.g., location, such as home or store; time; weather). We define contexts as any factor that has the potential to shift the choice outcomes by altering the process by which the decision is made. We use this lens to integrate the psychology literature on habitual choice, System I and II decision-making, and a recent stream of empirical work that involves social and situational effects into the scope of context effects. We distinguish between exogenous and endogenous context effects, based on whether the decision-maker chooses the context. We then discuss issues of empirically identifying context effects when using either experimentally generated data or naturally occurring secondary data. We conclude with a discussion of trends and opportunities for new research on context effects.

Keywords: Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Situation or Environment; Consumer Behavior;

Citation:

Thomadsen, Raphael, Robert P. Rooderkerk, On Amir, Neeraj Arora, Bryan Bollinger, Karsten Hansen, Leslie John, Wendy Liu, Aner Sela, Vishal Singh, K. Sudhir, and Wendy Wood. "How Context Affects Choice." Special Issue on 2016 Choice Symposium. Customer Needs and Solutions 5, nos. 1-2 (March 2018): 3–14. View Details

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Article | Annals of Emergency Medicine

What Does It Take to Change an Editor's Mind? Identifying Minimally Important Difference Thresholds for Peer Reviewer Rating Scores of Scientific Articles

Michael Callaham and Leslie John

Study objective—We define a minimally important difference for the Likert-type scores frequently used in scientific peer review (similar to existing minimally important differences for scores in clinical medicine). To our knowledge, the magnitude of score change required to change editorial decisions has not been studied.

Keywords: Information Publishing; Journals and Magazines; Science; Decision Making;

Citation:

Callaham, Michael, and Leslie John. "What Does It Take to Change an Editor's Mind? Identifying Minimally Important Difference Thresholds for Peer Reviewer Rating Scores of Scientific Articles." Annals of Emergency Medicine 72, no. 3 (September 2018): 314–318.e2. View Details

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Article | Harvard Business Review

Ads That Don't Overstep: How to Make Sure You Don't Take Personalization Too Far

Leslie John, Tami Kim and Kate Barasz

Data gathered on the web has vastly enhanced the capabilities of marketers. With people regularly sharing personal details online and internet cookies tracking every click, companies can now gain unprecedented insight into individual consumers and target them with tailored ads. But when this practice feels invasive to people, it can prompt a strong backlash. Marketers today need to understand where to the draw the line. The good news is that psychologists already know a lot about what triggers privacy concerns off-line. These norms—and the authors’ research—strongly suggest that firms steer clear of two ad-targeting techniques generally disliked by consumers: using information obtained on a third-party site rather than on the site on which an ad appears, which is akin to talking behind someone’s back; and deducing information about people (such as a pregnancy) from analytics when they haven’t declared it themselves. If marketers avoid those tactics, use data judiciously, focus on increasing trust and transparency, and offer people control over their personal data, their ads are much more likely to be accepted by consumers and help raise interest in engaging with a company and its products.

Keywords: Online Advertising; Customization and Personalization; Information; Customers; Attitudes;

Citation:

John, Leslie, Tami Kim, and Kate Barasz. "Ads That Don't Overstep: How to Make Sure You Don't Take Personalization Too Far." Harvard Business Review 96, no. 1 (January–February 2018): 62–69. View Details

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Article | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Temporary Sharing Prompts Unrestrained Disclosures That Leave Lasting Negative Impressions

Reto Hofstetter, Roland Rüppell and Leslie John

With the advent of social media, the impressions people make on others are based increasingly on their digital disclosures. Yet digital disclosures can come back to haunt, making it challenging for people to manage the impressions they make. In field and online experiments in which participants take, share, and evaluate “selfies” (self-photos), we show that paradoxically, these challenges can be exacerbated by temporary sharing media—technologies that prevent content from being stored permanently. Relative to permanent sharing, temporary sharing affects both whether and what people reveal. Specifically, temporary sharing increases compliance with the request to take a selfie (study 1) and induces greater disclosure risks (i.e., people exhibit greater disinhibition in their selfies, studies 1 & 2). This increased disclosure is driven by reduced privacy concerns (study 2). Yet observers’ impressions of sharers are insensitive to permanence (i.e., whether the selfie was shared temporarily versus permanently), and are instead driven by the disinhibition exhibited in the selfie (studies 4 - 7). As a result, induced by the promise of temporary sharing, sharers of uninhibited selfies come across as having worse judgment relative to those who share relatively discreet selfies (studies 1, 2, & 4-7)—an attributional pattern that is unanticipated by sharers (study 3), persistent days after the selfie has disappeared (study 5), robust to personal experience with temporary sharing (studies 6A & 6B), and holds even among friends (studies 7A & 7B). Temporary sharing may bring back forgetting, but not without introducing new (self-presentational) challenges.

Keywords: disclosure; privacy; Self-presentation; impression formation; social media; Behavior; Perspective; Online Technology;

Citation:

Hofstetter, Reto, Roland Rüppell, and Leslie John. "Temporary Sharing Prompts Unrestrained Disclosures That Leave Lasting Negative Impressions." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 45 (November 7, 2017). View Details

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Article | Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Pseudo-Set Framing

Kate Barasz, Leslie John, Elizabeth A. Keenan and Michael I. Norton

Pseudo-set framing—arbitrarily grouping items or tasks together as part of an apparent “set”—motivates people to reach perceived completion points. Pseudo-set framing changes gambling choices (Study 1), effort (Studies 2 and 3), giving behavior (Field Data and Study 4), and purchase decisions (Study 5). These effects persist in the absence of any reward, when a cost must be incurred, and after participants are explicitly informed of the arbitrariness of the set. Drawing on Gestalt psychology, we develop a conceptual account that predicts what will—and will not—act as a pseudo-set and defines the psychological process through which these pseudo-sets affect behavior, concluding that over and above typical reference points, pseudo-set framing alters perceptions of (in)completeness, making intermediate progress seem less complete. In turn, these feelings of incompleteness motivate people to persist until the pseudo-set has been fulfilled.

Keywords: framing effects; Gestalt psychology; judgment; decision making; perception; Judgments; Decision Making; Perception; Behavior;

Citation:

Barasz, Kate, Leslie John, Elizabeth A. Keenan, and Michael I. Norton. "Pseudo-Set Framing." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 146, no. 10 (October 2017): 1460–1477. View Details

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Article | Harvard Business Review

What's the Value of a Like?: Social Media Endorsements Don't Work the Way You Might Think

Leslie John, Daniel Mochon, Oliver Emrich and Janet Schwartz

Brands spend billions of dollars a year on lavish efforts to establish and maintain a social media presence. But do those campaigns actually increase revenue? New research provides an answer to this question, which has vexed marketers ever since social media burst upon the scene. In a series of experiments, the researchers tested four increasingly interactive ways in which Facebook might affect customers’ behavior. First, they explored whether liking a brand—passively following it—makes people more likely to purchase it. Second, they examined whether people’s likes affect their friends’ purchasing. Third, they looked at whether liking affects things other than purchasing (for example, whether it can persuade people to engage in healthful behaviors). And fourth, they tested whether boosting likes by paying to have branded content displayed in followers’ news feeds increases the chances of meaningful behavior change. The results were clear: Merely liking a brand neither increases purchasing nor spurs friends to purchase more. Supporting likes with branded content, however, can prompt meaningful behavior change.

Keywords: social media; Social and Collaborative Networks; Consumer Behavior; Marketing Strategy; Online Advertising;

Citation:

John, Leslie, Daniel Mochon, Oliver Emrich, and Janet Schwartz. "What's the Value of a Like? Social Media Endorsements Don't Work the Way You Might Think." Harvard Business Review 95, no. 2 (March–April 2017): 108–115. View Details

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Article | Psychological Science

Psychologically Informed Implementations of Sugary-Drink Portion Limits

Leslie John, Grant Donnelly and Christina Roberto

In 2012, the New York City Board of Health prohibited restaurants from selling sugary drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces. Although a state court ruled that the Board of Health did not have the authority to implement such a policy, it remains a legally viable option for governments and a voluntary option for restaurants. However, there is very limited empirical data on how such a policy might affect the purchasing and consumption of sugary drinks. Four well-powered, incentive-compatible experiments evaluate two possible ways in which firms might comply with such a policy: bundles (i.e., dividing the contents of oversized cups into two regulation-sized cups) and free refills (i.e., offering a regulation-sized cup with unlimited refills). Bundling causes people to buy less soda. Free refills can increase consumption, especially when waiter-served. This perverse effect is reduced in self-service contexts, which require walking just a few steps to get a refill.

Keywords: Nutrition; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Public Administration Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; New York (city, NY);

Citation:

John, Leslie, Grant Donnelly, and Christina Roberto. "Psychologically Informed Implementations of Sugary-Drink Portion Limits." Psychological Science 28, no. 5 (May 2017): 620–629. View Details

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Article | Harvard Business Review

How to Negotiate with a Liar

Leslie John

People, including negotiators, lie every day, so when you're trying to make a deal, it's important to defend against deception. The best strategy, says the author, is to focus not on detecting lies but on preventing them. She outlines five tactics that research has shown to be effective: encourage reciprocity. You can build trust and prompt other parties to disclose strategic information by sharing information yourself. Ask the right questions. Negotiators often lie by omission, keeping mum about relevant facts, but if directly asked, they are more likely to respond honestly. Watch for dodging. Don't let your counterparts sidestep your questions—write them down in advance, take notes on the answers, and make sure you get the information you're seeking. Don't dwell on confidentiality. Studies show that the more you reassure others that you'll protect their privacy, the more guarded and apt to lie they become. So be nonchalant when discussing sensitive topics. Cultivate leaks. People often reveal information unwittingly, so listen carefully for any slips and try indirect approaches to gaining information.

Keywords: Negotiation Tactics; Negotiation Participants;

Citation:

John, Leslie. "How to Negotiate with a Liar." Harvard Business Review 94, nos. 7-8 (July–August 2016): 114–117. View Details

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Article | American Journal of Health Promotion

The Effect of Cost Sharing on an Employee Weight Loss Program: A Randomized Trial

Leslie K. John, Andrea Troxel, William Yancy, Joelle Y. Friedman, Jingsan Zhu, Lin Yang, Robert Galvin, Karen Miller-Kovach, Scott Halpern, George Loewenstein and Kevin Volpp

Purpose: We tested the effects of employer subsidies on employee enrollment, attendance, and weight loss in a nationally-available weight management program.
Design: A randomized trial tested the impact of employer subsidy: 100%; 80% 50% and a hybrid 50% subsidy that could become a 100% subsidy by attaining attendance targets. Trial registration: NCT01756066.
Setting and Subjects: 23,023 employees of two U.S. companies.
Measures: The primary outcome was the percentage of employees who enrolled in the weight management program. We also tested whether the subsidies were associated with differential attendance and weight loss over 12 months, as might be predicted by the expectation that they attract employees with differing degrees of motivation.
Analysis and Results: Enrollment differed significantly by subsidy level (p<.0001). The 100% subsidy produced the highest enrollment (7.7%), significantly higher than each of the lower subsidies (vs. 80% subsidy: 6.2%, p=.002; vs. 50% subsidy: 3.9%, p<.0001; vs. hybrid: 3.7%, p<.0001). Enrollment in the 80% subsidy group was significantly higher than both lower subsidy groups (vs. 50% subsidy: 3.9%, p<.0001; vs. hybrid: 3.7%, p<.0001). Among enrollees, there were no differences among the four groups in attendance or weight loss.
Conclusion: This pragmatic trial, conducted in a real-world workplace setting, suggests that higher rates of employer subsidization help individuals to enroll in weight loss programs, without a decrement in program effectiveness. Future research could explore the cost effectiveness of such subsidies or alternative designs.

Keywords: Affordable Care Act (ACA); subsidies; weight loss; obesity; incentives; Behavioral economics; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Health Disorders; Health Care and Treatment; Compensation and Benefits; United States;

Citation:

John, Leslie K., Andrea Troxel, William Yancy, Joelle Y. Friedman, Jingsan Zhu, Lin Yang, Robert Galvin, Karen Miller-Kovach, Scott Halpern, George Loewenstein, and Kevin Volpp. "The Effect of Cost Sharing on an Employee Weight Loss Program: A Randomized Trial." American Journal of Health Promotion 32, no. 1 (January 2018): 170–176. View Details

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Article | Journal of Marketing Research (JMR)

Does 'Liking' Lead to Loving? The Impact of Joining a Brand's Social Network on Marketing Outcomes

Leslie K. John, Oliver Emrich, Sunil Gupta and Michael I. Norton

Does “liking” a brand on Facebook cause a person to view it more favorably? Or is “liking” simply a symptom of being fond of a brand? We disentangle these possibilities and find evidence for the latter: brand attitudes and purchasing are predicted by consumers’ preexisting fondness for brands and are the same regardless of when and whether consumers “like” brands. In addition, we explore possible second-order effects, examining whether “liking” brands might cause consumers’ friends to view that brand more favorably. When consumers see that a friend has “liked” a brand, they are less likely to buy the brand relative to a more meaningful social endorsement: learning that a friend likes a brand, in the offline sense. Taken together, five experiments and two meta-analyses (N > 14,000) suggest that turning “liking” into improved brand attitudes and increased purchasing by either consumers or their friends may require more than just the click of a button.

Keywords: Brands; marketing effectiveness; brand evaluation; peer influence; social media; Brands and Branding; Social and Collaborative Networks;

Citation:

John, Leslie K., Oliver Emrich, Sunil Gupta, and Michael I. Norton. "Does 'Liking' Lead to Loving? The Impact of Joining a Brand's Social Network on Marketing Outcomes." Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 54, no. 1 (February 2017): 144–155. View Details

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Article | Journal of Marketing Research (JMR)

The Role of (Dis)similarity in (Mis)predicting Others' Preferences

Kate Barasz, Tami Kim and Leslie K. John

Consumers readily indicate liking options that appear dissimilar—for example, enjoying both rustic lake vacations and chic city vacations or liking both scholarly documentary films and action-packed thrillers. However, when predicting other consumers’ tastes for the same items, people believe that a preference for one precludes enjoyment of the dissimilar other. Five studies show that people sensibly expect others to like similar products but erroneously expect others to dislike dissimilar ones (Studies 1 and 2). While people readily select dissimilar items for themselves (particularly if the dissimilar item is of higher quality than a similar one), they fail to predict this choice for others (Studies 3 and 4)—even when monetary rewards are at stake (Study 3). The tendency to infer dislike from dissimilarity is driven by a belief that others have a narrow and homogeneous range of preferences (Study 5).

Keywords: perceived similarity; prediction error; preference prediction; self-other difference; social inference; Cognition and Thinking; Perception; Forecasting and Prediction;

Citation:

Barasz, Kate, Tami Kim, and Leslie K. John. "The Role of (Dis)similarity in (Mis)predicting Others' Preferences." Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 53, no. 4 (August 2016): 597–607. View Details

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Article | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Hiding Personal Information Reveals the Worst

Leslie K. John, Kate Barasz and Michael I. Norton

Seven experiments explore people's decisions to share or withhold personal information and the wisdom of such decisions. When people choose not to reveal information—to be "hiders"—they are judged negatively by others (experiment 1). These negative judgments emerge when hiding is volitional (experiments 2A and 2B) and are driven by decreases in trustworthiness engendered by decisions to hide (experiments 3A and 3B). Moreover, hiders do not intuit these negative consequences: given the choice to withhold or reveal unsavory information, people often choose to withhold, but observers rate those who reveal even questionable behavior more positively (experiments 4A and 4B). The negative impact of hiding holds whether opting not to disclose unflattering (drug use, poor grades, and sexually transmitted diseases) or flattering (blood donations) information including across decisions ranging from whom to date to whom to hire. When faced with decisions about disclosure, decision makers should be aware not just of the risk of revealing but of what hiding reveals.

Keywords: disclosure; transparency; trust; policy-making; privacy; Information; Corporate Disclosure; Decision Choices and Conditions; Trust;

Citation:

John, Leslie K., Kate Barasz, and Michael I. Norton. "Hiding Personal Information Reveals the Worst." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, no. 4 (January 26, 2016): 954–959. View Details

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Article | Behavioral Science & Policy

Beyond Good Intentions: Prompting People to Make Plans Improves Follow-through on Important Tasks

Todd Rogers, Katherine L Milkman, Leslie K. John and Michael I. Norton

Many intend to stay fit but fail to exercise or eat healthfully; students intend to earn good grades but study too little; citizens intend to vote but fail to turnout. How can policymakers help people follow through on intentions like these? Plan-making, a tool that leverages research on memory and cognition as well as mechanical benefits of scheduling, is one underappreciated solution. We review experiments showing that forming specific, concrete plans increases follow through across a range of domains—from vaccinations to voting. Plan-making prompts are simple, inexpensive, and powerful tools for changing behavior, which preserve the autonomy of decision makers.

Keywords: Behavior; Success; Planning;

Citation:

Rogers, Todd, Katherine L Milkman, Leslie K. John, and Michael I. Norton. "Beyond Good Intentions: Prompting People to Make Plans Improves Follow-through on Important Tasks." Behavioral Science & Policy 1, no. 2 (December 2015): 33–41. View Details

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Article | Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Cheating More for Less: Upward Social Comparisons Motivate the Poorly Compensated to Cheat

Leslie K. John, George Loewenstein and Scott Rick

Intuitively, people should cheat more when cheating is more lucrative, but we find that the effect of performance-based pay rates on dishonesty depends on how readily people can compare their pay rate to that of others. In Experiment 1, participants were paid 5 cents or 25 cents per self-reported point in a trivia task, and half were aware that they could have received the alternative pay rate. Lower pay rates increased cheating when the prospect of a higher pay rate was salient. Experiment 2 illustrates that this effect is driven by the ease with which poorly compensated participants can compare their pay to that of others who earn a higher pay rate. Our results suggest that low pay rates are, in and of themselves, unlikely to promote dishonesty. Instead, it is the salience of upward social comparisons that encourages the poorly compensated to cheat.

Keywords: dishonesty; social comparison; pay secrecy; Motivation and Incentives; Fairness; Decision Making; Compensation and Benefits;

Citation:

John, Leslie K., George Loewenstein, and Scott Rick. "Cheating More for Less: Upward Social Comparisons Motivate the Poorly Compensated to Cheat." Special Issue on Behavioral Ethics. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 123, no. 2 (March 2014): 101–109. View Details

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Article | American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Financial Incentives for Exercise Adherence in Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Marc S. Mitchell, Jack M. Goodman, David A. Alter, Leslie K. John, Paul I. Oh, Maureen T. Pakosh and Guy E. Faulkner

Context Less than 5% of U.S. adults accumulate the required dose of exercise to maintain health. Behavioral economics has stimulated renewed interest in economic-based, population-level health interventions to address this issue. Despite widespread implementation of financial incentive-based public health and workplace wellness policies, the effects of financial incentives on exercise initiation and maintenance in adults remain unclear.
Evidence acquisition A systematic search of 15 electronic databases for RCTs reporting the impact of financial incentives on exercise-related behaviors and outcomes was conducted in June 2012. A meta-analysis of exercise session attendance among included studies was conducted in April 2013. A qualitative analysis was conducted in February 2013 and structured along eight features of financial incentive design.
Evidence synthesis Eleven studies were included (N=1453; ages 18–85 years and 50% female). Pooled results favored the incentive condition (z=3.81, p<0.0001). Incentives also exhibited significant, positive effects on exercise in eight of the 11 included studies. One study determined that incentives can sustain exercise for longer periods (>1 year), and two studies found exercise adherence persisted after the incentive was withdrawn. Promising incentive design feature attributes were noted. Assured, or “sure thing,” incentives and objective behavioral assessment in particular appear to moderate incentive effectiveness. Previously sedentary adults responded favorably to incentives 100% of the time (n=4).
Conclusions The effect estimate from the meta-analysis suggests that financial incentives increase exercise session attendance for interventions up to 6 months in duration. Similarly, a simple count of positive (n=8) and null (n=3) effect studies suggests that financial incentives can increase exercise adherence in adults in the short term (<6 months).

Keywords: exercise; Health; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives;

Citation:

Mitchell, Marc S., Jack M. Goodman, David A. Alter, Leslie K. John, Paul I. Oh, Maureen T. Pakosh, and Guy E. Faulkner. "Financial Incentives for Exercise Adherence in Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 45, no. 5 (November 2013): 658–667. View Details

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Article | Health Psychology

Converging to the Lowest Common Denominator in Physical Health

Leslie K. John and Michael I. Norton

Objective: This research examines how access to information on peer health behaviors affects one's own health behavior. Methods: We report the results of a randomized field experiment in a large corporation in which we introduced walkstations (treadmills attached to desks that enable employees to walk while working), provided employees with feedback on their own and their co-workers' usage, and assessed usage over six months. We report how we determined our sample size, as well as all data exclusions, manipulations, and measures in the study. Results: Walkstation usage declined most when participants were given information on co-workers' usage levels, due to a tendency to converge to the lowest common denominator—their least-active co-workers. Conclusion: This research demonstrates the impact of the lowest common denominator in physical activity: people's activity levels tend to converge to the lowest-performing members of their groups. This research adds to our understanding of the factors that determine when the behavior of others impacts our own behavior for the better—and the worse.

Keywords: Information; Behavior; Decision Choices and Conditions; Health; Health Industry;

Citation:

John, Leslie K., and Michael I. Norton. "Converging to the Lowest Common Denominator in Physical Health." Special Issue on Health Psychology Meets Behavioral Economics. Health Psychology 32, no. 9 (September 2013): 1023–1028. View Details

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Article | Journal of Legal Studies

What Is Privacy Worth?

Alessandro Acquisti, Leslie K. John and George Loewenstein

Understanding the value that individuals assign to the protection of their personal data is of great importance for business, law, and public policy. We use a field experiment informed by behavioral economics and decision research to investigate individual privacy valuations and find evidence of endowment and order effects. Individuals assigned markedly different values to the privacy of their data depending on (1) whether they were asked to consider how much money they would accept to disclose otherwise private information or how much they would pay to protect otherwise public information and (2) the order in which they considered different offers for their data. The gap between such values is large compared with that observed in comparable studies of consumer goods. The results highlight the sensitivity of privacy valuations to contextual, nonnormative factors.

Keywords: Safety; Rights; Valuation; Ethics; Identity;

Citation:

Acquisti, Alessandro, Leslie K. John, and George Loewenstein. "What Is Privacy Worth?" Journal of Legal Studies 42, no. 2 (June 2013): 249–274. View Details

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Article | Preventive Medicine

Empirical Observations on Longer-term Use of Incentives for Weight Loss

Leslie K. John, George Loewenstein and Kevin Volpp

Behavioral economic-based interventions are emerging as powerful tools to help individuals accomplish their own goals, including weight loss. Deposit contract incentive systems give participants the opportunity to put their money down toward losing weight, which they forfeit if they fail to lose weight; lottery incentive systems enable participants to win money if they attain weight loss goals. In this paper, we pool data from two prior studies to examine a variety of issues that unpublished data from those studies allow us to address. First, examining data from the deposit contract treatments in greater depth, we investigate factors affecting deposit frequency and size and discuss possible ways of increasing deposits. Next, we compare the effectiveness of both deposit contract and lottery interventions as a function of participant demographic characteristics. These observations may help to guide the design of future, longer-term, behavioral economic-based interventions.

Keywords: weight loss; obesity; Behavioral economics; intervention; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives;

Citation:

John, Leslie K., George Loewenstein, and Kevin Volpp. "Empirical Observations on Longer-term Use of Incentives for Weight Loss." Preventive Medicine 55, Supplement 1 (November 2012): S68–S74. View Details

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Article | Pediatrics

Effects of Description of Options on Parental Perinatal Decision-Making

Marlyse F. Haward, Leslie K. John, John M. Lorenz and Baruch Fischhoff

Objective: To examine whether parents' delivery room management decisions for extremely preterm infants are influenced by (a) the degree of detail with which options-comfort care (CC) or intensive care (IC)-are presented or (b) their order of presentation. Methods: 309 volunteers, 18-55 years old, were each randomized to one of 4 groups: 1. detailed descriptions, CC presented first; 2. detailed descriptions, IC presented first; 3. brief descriptions, CC presented first; and 4. brief descriptions, IC presented first. Each received the description of a hypothetical delivery of a 23-week gestation infant and chose either IC or CC. Open-ended and structured questions elicited reasoning. Data were analyzed by chi-square and logistic regression analysis. Results: Neither degree of detail, comparing groups 1+2 with 3+4 (37% v 41%, OR=0.85, 95%CI=0.54-1.34, p=0.48), nor order, comparing groups 1+3 with 2+4 (40% v 37 %, OR=0.88, 95%CI=0.56-1.39; p=0.59), influenced the likelihood of choosing IC. Participants choosing IC were more likely to invoke sanctity of life and religiosity as personal values. Additional reasons for choosing IC were experiences with infants born at later gestational ages, giving the baby a chance, not watching their baby die, and equating CC with euthanasia. Some choosing CC wanted to avoid infant suffering. Conclusions: The degree of detail and order of presentation had no effect on treatment decisions, suggesting that individuals bring well-articulated preexisting preferences to such decisions. Understanding beliefs and attitudes motivating these preferences can assist physicians in helping parents make informed decisions consistent with their values.

Keywords: Decision Making; Values and Beliefs; Personal Characteristics; Attitudes; Motivation and Incentives; Family and Family Relationships; Health Care and Treatment;

Citation:
Haward, Marlyse F., Leslie K. John, John M. Lorenz, and Baruch Fischhoff. "Effects of Description of Options on Parental Perinatal Decision-Making." Pediatrics 129, no. 5 (May 2012): 891–902. View Details

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Article | Psychological Science

Measuring the Prevalence of Questionable Research Practices with Incentives for Truth-telling

Leslie K. John, George Loewenstein and Drazen Prelec

Cases of clear scientific misconduct have received significant media attention recently, but less flagrant transgressions of research norms may be more prevalent and in the long run more damaging to the academic enterprise. We surveyed over 2,000 psychologists about their involvement in questionable research practices, using an anonymous elicitation format supplemented by incentives for honest reporting. The impact of incentives on admission rates was positive and greater for practices that respondents judge to be less defensible. Using three different estimation methods, we find that the proportion of respondents that have engaged in these practices is surprisingly high relative to respondents' own estimates of these proportions. Some questionable practices may constitute the prevailing research norm.

Keywords: Research; Practice; Motivation and Incentives; Surveys; Values and Beliefs; Measurement and Metrics;

Citation:

John, Leslie K., George Loewenstein, and Drazen Prelec. "Measuring the Prevalence of Questionable Research Practices with Incentives for Truth-telling." Psychological Science 23, no. 5 (May 2012): 524–532. View Details

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Article | Journal of Marketing Research (JMR)

The Impact of Relative Standards on the Propensity to Disclose

Alessandro Acquisti, Leslie K. John and George Loewenstein

Citation:

Acquisti, Alessandro, Leslie K. John, and George Loewenstein. "The Impact of Relative Standards on the Propensity to Disclose." Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 49, no. 2 (April 2012): 160–174. View Details

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Article | Journal of General Internal Medicine

Financial Incentives for Extended Weight Loss: A Randomized, Controlled Trial

Leslie K. John, George Loewenstein, Andrea Troxel, Laurie Norton, Jennifer Fassbender and Kevin Volpp

Keywords: Finance; Health; Motivation and Incentives;

Citation:

John, Leslie K., George Loewenstein, Andrea Troxel, Laurie Norton, Jennifer Fassbender, and Kevin Volpp. "Financial Incentives for Extended Weight Loss: A Randomized, Controlled Trial." Journal of General Internal Medicine 26, no. 6 (June 2011): 621–626. View Details

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Article | Journal of Consumer Research

Strangers on a Plane: Context-dependent Willingness to Divulge Sensitive Information

Leslie K. John, Alessandro Acquisti and George Loewenstein

Citation:

John, Leslie K., Alessandro Acquisti, and George Loewenstein. "Strangers on a Plane: Context-dependent Willingness to Divulge Sensitive Information." Journal of Consumer Research 37, no. 5 (February 2011): 858–873. View Details

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Article | Social Psychological & Personality Science

Good Intentions, Optimistic Self-Predictions, and Missed Opportunities

Derek Koehler, Rebecca White and Leslie K. John

Self-predictions are highly sensitive to current intentions but often largely insensitive to factors influencing the readiness with which those intentions are translated into future behavior. When such factors are under a person's control, they could be used to increase the probability that desired future behavior will be undertaken, but they will be underused if self-predictions underestimate their impact. This hypothesis was borne out in two experiments involving working students attempting to achieve a savings goal: They strongly intended to save, made overly optimistic self-predictions even when it was costly to do so, and were willing to pay very little for a service that could help them save more because they did not anticipate its impact on their future behavior. By contrast, students who were informed of the service's actual impact were willing to pay more for it, and students did not underestimate the impact of the service on fellow students.

Keywords: Planning; Saving; Behavior; Forecasting and Prediction;

Citation:

Koehler, Derek, Rebecca White, and Leslie K. John. "Good Intentions, Optimistic Self-Predictions, and Missed Opportunities." Social Psychological & Personality Science 2, no. 1 (January 2011): 90–96. View Details

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Article | Medical Decision Making

Changes of Heart: The Switch-Value Method for Assessing Value Uncertainty

Leslie K. John and Baruch Fischhoff

Keywords: Value; Risk and Uncertainty;

Citation:

John, Leslie K., and Baruch Fischhoff. "Changes of Heart: The Switch-Value Method for Assessing Value Uncertainty." Medical Decision Making 30, no. 3 (May–June 2010): 388–397. View Details

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Article | JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association

Financial Incentive Based Approaches for Weight Loss: A Randomized Trial

Kevin Volpp, Leslie K. John, Andrea Troxel, Laurie Norton, Jennifer Fassbender and George Loewenstein

Keywords: Finance; Health; Motivation and Incentives;

Citation:
Volpp, Kevin, Leslie K. John, Andrea Troxel, Laurie Norton, Jennifer Fassbender, and George Loewenstein. "Financial Incentive Based Approaches for Weight Loss: A Randomized Trial." JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association 300, no. 22 (December 10, 2008): 2631–2637. View Details

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Book Chapters

Chapter | The Cambridge Handbook of Consumer Psychology | 2015

The Consumer Psychology of Online Privacy: Insights and Opportunities from Behavioral Decision Theory

Leslie K. John

Citation:

John, Leslie K. "The Consumer Psychology of Online Privacy: Insights and Opportunities from Behavioral Decision Theory." In The Cambridge Handbook of Consumer Psychology, edited by Michael I. Norton, Derek D. Rucker, and Cait Lamberton. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. View Details

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Chapter | Psychological Science under Scrutiny: Recent Challenges and Proposed Solutions | 2017

Toward Transparent Reporting of Psychological Science

Etienne P. LeBel and Leslie K. John

In this chapter we make a case for increased transparency of the methods used to obtain research findings. Although comprehensive reporting facilitates accurate assessment of a paper’s claims, the current reporting norm is secrecy, not openness. We begin by putting this situation into historical context, comparing reporting norms from a bygone era to those of today. Next, we explain why transparency is desirable, even if full compliance is not achieved. We then outline the obstacles—both psychological and institutional—to comprehensive reporting. We go on to discuss possible remedies and end by drawing connections between the disclosure problem and other ongoing challenges within psychological science and allied fields.

Keywords: Research; Problems and Challenges;

Citation:

LeBel, Etienne P., and Leslie K. John. "Toward Transparent Reporting of Psychological Science." In Psychological Science under Scrutiny: Recent Challenges and Proposed Solutions, edited by S.O. Lilienfeld and I.D. Waldman. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2017. View Details

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Chapter | The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy | 2012

Using Decision Errors to Help People Help Themselves

George Loewenstein, Leslie K. John and Kevin Volpp

Keywords: Decisions; Welfare or Wellbeing;

Citation:

Loewenstein, George, Leslie K. John, and Kevin Volpp. "Using Decision Errors to Help People Help Themselves." Chap. 21 in The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy, edited by Eldar Shafir, 361–379. Princeton University Press, 2012. View Details

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Working Papers

Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2020

Exploration in Behavioral Science

Hanne Collins, A.V. Whillans and Leslie John

In the past decade, behavioral science has undergone beneficial shifts towards greater transparency and more rigorous research. However, we wondered whether this heightened focus on confirmation might make researchers feel inhibited towards doing research, and reduce the propensity to explore. Study 1 (N=404), a descriptive survey, indicated that relative to confirmatory research, researchers found exploratory research more enjoyable, motivating, and interesting; and less anxiety-inducing, frustrating, boring, and scientific. It also introduced a scale to measure research inhibition; higher scores were linked to running fewer studies and were particularly common among women, untenured professors, and receiving one’s PhD after 2011—when reforms began. Study 2 (N=463), a pre-registered experiment, indicated that a confirmatory mindset made researchers less likely to find an interesting (non-hypothesized) interaction. A reminder to explore did not mitigate this effect. These studies suggest that work is needed to ensure that rigorous scientific reforms and exploration can coexist.

Keywords: open science; pre-registration; Exploration; career satisfaction; Science; Research; Personal Development and Career; Satisfaction; Diversity;

Citation:
Collins, Hanne, A.V. Whillans, and Leslie John. "Exploration in Behavioral Science." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-090, February 2020. View Details

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Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2020

The Bulletproof Glass Effect: When Privacy Notices Backfire

Aaron R. Brough, David A. Norton and Leslie John

Firms typically provide assurances to consumers about data management practices in the form of privacy notices. This manuscript proposes that ironically, such assurances can fuel rather than alleviate privacy concerns. Indeed, we show that consumers react to assurances as if they were warnings—a counterintuitive phenomenon because unlike warnings, which communicate danger, assurances are designed to communicate protection. Across one field experiment and five lab experiments, we show that a salient (vs. an absent or less salient) privacy notice can lead to decreased rather than increased purchase intent. This effect is mediated by consumer trust and is robust to the language in the privacy notice—it occurs even when the notice is overtly assuring, as well as when consumers see only a link to the notice but do not view its contents. The attenuation of the effect in joint (vs. separate) evaluation suggests that consumers’ hesitation to transact with organizations that have a salient privacy notice is not likely driven by an active aversion to assurances but rather by the arousal of dormant privacy concerns.

Keywords: choice; purchase intent; privacy; privacy notices; warnings; assurances; information disclosure; Trust; Consumer Behavior; Spending; Decisions; Information; Communication;

Citation:
Brough, Aaron R., David A. Norton, and Leslie John. "The Bulletproof Glass Effect: When Privacy Notices Backfire." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-089, February 2020. View Details

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Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2020

From Sweetheart to Scapegoat: Brand Selfie-Taking Shapes Consumer Behavior

Reto Hofstetter, Gabriela Kunath and Leslie K. John

Increasingly, consumers are taking self-photos and marketers, eager to capitalize on this trend, have been asking consumers to take self-photos with brands (i.e., brand selfies). We suggest that consumer compliance with such requests sparks a self-inferential process that leads the consumer to feel connected to the brand (e.g., “If I took the brand selfie, I must feel connected to this brand”), increasing brand preference. Eight studies support this account. In a dataset of 283,140 user reviews from Yelp, study 1 documented a positive association between a reviewer’s propensity to take a brand selfie and the star rating he gives the restaurant. Seven experiments point to causality. Participants randomized to take brand selfies felt greater self-brand connection and exhibited heightened brand preference, relative to those randomized to take: no photo at all (study 2a); a selfie (without the brand, studies 2b–6); or a photo of the brand (without the self, study 3). Two studies point to process in convergent ways, via serial mediation (study 4) and moderated mediation (study 5). A final study documented a crucial moderator: dissatisfaction with one’s appearance in the selfie triggers defensive processing, reducing self-inference and, thereby, the capacity for brand selfie-taking to increase brand preference.

Keywords: brand selfie; photo-taking; self-perception; self-inferences; self-brand connection; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Perception;

Citation:
Hofstetter, Reto, Gabriela Kunath, and Leslie K. John. "From Sweetheart to Scapegoat: Brand Selfie-Taking Shapes Consumer Behavior." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-085, February 2020. View Details

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Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2020

Fostering Perceptions of Authenticity via Sensitive Self-Disclosure

Li Jiang, Maryam Kouchaki, Francesca Gino, Reihane Boghrati and Leslie John

Leaders’ perceived authenticity—the sense that a leader is acting in accordance with her “true self” —is associated with positive outcomes for both employees and organizations alike. How might a leader foster this impression? Using field and experimental data, we test whether sensitive self-disclosures—for example, revealing an aversion to public speaking—make leaders come across as authentic and lead to positive outcomes, such as an enhanced desire to work with that leader (Studies 1, 2A, 2B, and 3). Stemming from our conceptual account, we show that these benefits emerge when the self-disclosure is mild to moderately sensitive in nature (Study 4) and made voluntarily (as opposed to by requirement) (Study 6) by a relatively high-status person (Study 5). Would-be disclosers do not intuit these positive consequences of self-disclosure (Study 7), suggesting that leaders may under employ an effective tool for making a positive impression.

Keywords: Authenticity; disclosure; Leaders; impression management; Leadership Style; Personal Characteristics; Communication Intention and Meaning; Perception;

Citation:
Jiang, Li, Maryam Kouchaki, Francesca Gino, Reihane Boghrati, and Leslie John. "Fostering Perceptions of Authenticity via Sensitive Self-Disclosure." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-070, January 2020. View Details

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Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2020

A Preference for Revision Absent Objective Improvement

Ximena Garcia-Rada, Leslie John, Ed O’Brien and Michael I. Norton

Things change. Things also get changed—often. Why? The obvious reason is that revising things often makes them better. We document a less obvious reason: revising things makes consumers think they are better, even absent objective improvement. Eleven studies document the preference for revision and provide insight into its psychological underpinnings. Studies 1A–1C document the effect among MBA students engaged in a resume revision process, while Studies 2 and 3 demonstrate the effect both experientially (eating candy) and via choice (of pens). Revisions are preferred even when trivially different from their predecessors (study 4A), and even when there is no difference between original and revised versions (study 4B). Consumers overgeneralize their belief that revisers intend to improve their creations and that revisions represent the successful fruition of those intentions (studies 5A and 5B); as a result, consumers are relatively uncritical of flaws in purportedly revised products (a video game; study 6), unless cued to doubt that revisers can be trusted (study 7).

Keywords: heuristics and biases; framing; sequences; judgment; Change; Perception;

Citation:
Garcia-Rada, Ximena, Leslie John, Ed O’Brien, and Michael I. Norton. "A Preference for Revision Absent Objective Improvement." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-087, February 2019. (Revised April 2020.) View Details

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Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2019

Calculators for Women: When Identity Appeals Provoke Backlash

Tami Kim, Kate Barasz, Leslie John and Michael I. Norton

From “Chick Beer” to “Dryer sheets for Men,” identity-based labeling is frequently deployed to appeal to people who hold the targeted identity. However, five studies demonstrate that identity appeals can backfire, alienating the very individuals they aim to attract. We begin by demonstrating backlash against identity appeals in the field during the 2016 presidential election (Study 1) and in the lab (Study 2). This (in)effectiveness of identity appeals is driven by categorization threat—feeling unwillingly reduced to a single identity—which is induced when a) the identity deployed is that of a typically marginalized group (Studies 3-4) and b) the appeal evokes a stereotype about that identity (Study 5). Ironically, identity appeals often drive identity-holders away from options they would have preferred in the absence of that appeal.

Keywords: categorization threat; stereotypes; Identity; Labels; Gender; Perception;

Citation:
Kim, Tami, Kate Barasz, Leslie John, and Michael I. Norton. "Calculators for Women: When Identity Appeals Provoke Backlash." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-086, February 2019. View Details

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Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2020

On the Failure to Seek Beneficial Information: The Problem with Inconspicuous Incentives

Leslie K. John, Hayley Blunden, Katherine L. Milkman, Luca Foschini, Francesca Gino and Bradford Tuckfield

Managers and policymakers regularly rely on incentives to encourage valued behaviors. While often successful, there are also notable and surprising examples of their ineffectiveness. Why? Perhaps they are not sufficiently conspicuous. In support of this account, in a large-scale field experiment and laboratory study, we show that even when incentives are transparently provided and easily trackable in real time, failing to make them conspicuous renders incentives ineffectual at shifting behavior. Further, we show that inconspicuous incentives are ineffective in part because people fail to seek information on how to improve their outcomes despite being informed that such information exists and even when it can be obtained at the mere click of button. Finally, we show that people fail to appreciate potential beneficiaries’ apparent lack of interest in obtaining incentive information, a result suggesting that purveyors of incentive programs may under-invest in promoting them.

Keywords: incentives; field experiment; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Management; Information;

Citation:
John, Leslie K., Hayley Blunden, Katherine L. Milkman, Luca Foschini, Francesca Gino, and Bradford Tuckfield. "On the Failure to Seek Beneficial Information: The Problem with Inconspicuous Incentives." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-090, February 2016. (Revised January 2020.) View Details

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Cases and Teaching Materials

Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | September 2019 (Revised February 2020)

Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Unbanklike Experimentation

Ryan W. Buell and Leslie K. John

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

This Teaching Note explains the theory of the case and teaching plan for the case: Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Unbanklike Experimentation (619-018). In August 2017, Commonwealth Bank of Australia was looking for ways to differentiate itself from competing banks and was also trying to improve the financial well-being of its customers. One domain where this was particularly relevant was in its bank-issued credit card business, where customers routinely selected cards that although profitable for the bank could be a poor fit for customers’ needs—leading to low satisfaction scores, cancellations, and occasionally, financial distress. To that end, the company’s Behavioral Economics team had developed a provocative experiment dubbed “The Good and the Bad.” Rather than just presenting the strengths of its various credit card offerings, they proposed also promoting each credit card’s less-obvious drawbacks. Being transparent with customers might help them make better choices, but would those choices come at the expense of bank performance? Should a company choose to be in the sales prevention business?

Keywords: transparency; experimentation; Banks and Banking; Credit Cards; Customer Focus and Relationships; Competitive Strategy; Banking Industry; Australia;

Citation:
Buell, Ryan W., and Leslie K. John. "Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Unbanklike Experimentation." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 620-041, September 2019. (Revised February 2020.) View Details

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Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | September 2019 (Revised February 2020)

Fishbowl: Scaling Up

Leslie K. John

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

Teaching Note for HBS No. 919-013. 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, people get real. Fishbowl prides itself in being a "safe space" that allows users to feel comfortable interacting with candor - whether to ask difficult questions in order to give and get advice, or just to vent or crack jokes. A key part of the user experience is the ability to post anonymously. But to ensure relevance of posts, when a user signs up, Fishbowl verifies their identity by requiring them to provide their full name, employer email address, LinkedIn account and contact list. Fishbowl has several hundred thousand users and is now looking for ways to monetize the platform. As such, founders Loren Appin and Matt Sunbulli face a mission-critical decision: should they integrate employers into the platform? Although formally integrating employers would provide a much-needed revenue stream, at the same time Appin and Sunbulli worry that doing so could destroy the user experience. Is formalizing employer relationships antithetical to the safe space they have created?

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; Two-Sided Platforms; Consumer Behavior; Network Effects; Emotions; Motivation and Incentives; Trust; Software; Technology Adoption; Technology Platform; Communications Industry; Employment Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States;

Citation:
John, Leslie K. "Fishbowl: Scaling Up." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 920-022, September 2019. (Revised February 2020.) (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details

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Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | August 2019

Back to the Roots

Elizabeth A. Keenan and Leslie K. John

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

This Teaching Note explains the theory of the case and teaching plan for the case: Back to the Roots HBS case No. 518-073. Back to the Roots (BTTR) is a start-up with a social mission to “undo food”—to reconnect people to where their food comes from. In late 2017, Back to the Roots cofounders Nikhil Arora and Alex Velez were contemplating their next move. The company had an eclectic portfolio of products, including ready-to-grow products, which included gardens in a can, and ready-to-eat products, which included cereals, and was being courted by two major players in each category. With an award-winning cereal-based snack bar in their hands, the duo was debating whether they should delve further into the ready-to-eat category. But it was a competitive space. They wondered whether they were ready to launch yet another new product and, if so, what this move would mean for their ready-to-grow product line. Which path would enable them to best achieve their growth goals?

Keywords: organic food; Startup; crowdfunding; sustainability; transparency; Entrepreneurship; Product Development; Product Marketing; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Making; Food; Food and Beverage Industry;

Citation:
Keenan, Elizabeth A., and Leslie K. John. "Back to the Roots." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 520-028, August 2019. (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details

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Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | August 2019 (Revised February 2020)

Sidewalk Labs: Privacy in a City Built from the Internet Up

Leslie John and Mitch Weiss

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

The case serves as a microcosm of issues of digital privacy: the availability of data – personal data in particular – has tremendous potential to improve people’s lives and commercial endeavors alike, but it also introduces a host of privacy perils. How can the benefits of this availability of personal data be realized while mitigating the pitfalls? Concern over firms’ use and misuse of consumers’ data has been increasing, fueling a debate surrounding the regulation of online privacy. In this case, students debate this question, and devise a framework of different approaches to resolving these issues.
The case provides a ripe area of inquiry for privacy issues: so-called “platform” companies, and especially platforms that run adjacent to, or even in public space. Cities are among the most ancient type of “platform,” providing a foundation for users of all types (individuals, organizations, companies) to interact, exchange, and innovate. Where platforms rely on users to generate and share data, privacy issues abound; Sidewalk Toronto is no exception.

Keywords: privacy; privacy by design; Privacy Regulation; platforms; data; data security; behavioral science; Data and Data Sets; Safety; Entrepreneurship; Business and Government Relations; Consumer Behavior;

Citation:
John, Leslie, and Mitch Weiss. "Sidewalk Labs: Privacy in a City Built from the Internet Up." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 820-023, August 2019. (Revised February 2020.) (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details

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Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2018 (Revised February 2020)

Fishbowl: Scaling Up

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, people get real. Fishbowl prides itself in being a "safe space" that allows users to feel comfortable interacting with candor - whether to ask difficult questions in order to give and get advice, or just to vent or crack jokes. A key part of the user experience is the ability to post anonymously. But to ensure relevance of posts, when a user signs up, Fishbowl verifies their identity by requiring them to provide their full name, employer email address, LinkedIn account and contact list. Fishbowl has several hundred thousand users and is now looking for ways to monetize the platform. As such, founders Loren Appin and Matt Sunbulli face a mission-critical decision: should they integrate employers into the platform? Although formally integrating employers would provide a much-needed revenue stream, at the same time Appin and Sunbulli worry that doing so could destroy the user experience. Is formalizing employer relationships antithetical to the safe space they have created?

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; Two-Sided Platforms; Consumer Behavior; Network Effects; Emotions; Motivation and Incentives; Trust; Software; Technology Adoption; Technology Platform; Communications Industry; Employment Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States;

Citation:
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.) View Details

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Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | December 2018

The Campbell Home (A), (B), and (C)

Leslie John

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

Teaching Note for HBS Nos. 918-017, 918-018, and 918-019. Campbell siblings Thomas and Sally are faced with selling their childhood home. They need to make several difficult consequential decisions, all the while navigating their contentious relationship. Did it make sense to hire a broker, or should they go it alone? How much was the home worth? What should the listing price be? Most importantly, what combination of answers would get them the best outcome? And along the way, as they gather information to answer these questions, several unforeseen events occur.

Keywords: agents; bidding process; Negotiation; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Preparation; Negotiation Participants; Valuation; Real Estate Industry; United States;

Citation:
John, Leslie. "The Campbell Home (A), (B), and (C)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 919-012, December 2018. (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details

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Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2018 (Revised July 2019)

Sidewalk Labs: Privacy in a City Built from the Internet Up

Leslie K. John, Mitchell Weiss and Julia Kelley

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

By the time Dan Doctoroff, CEO of Sidewalk Labs, began hosting a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session in January 2018, he had only nine months remaining to convince the people of Toronto, their government representatives, and presumably his parent company Alphabet, Inc., that Sidewalk Labs’ plan to construct “the first truly 21st-century city” on the Canadian city’s waterfront was a sound one. Along with much excitement and optimism, strains of concern had emerged since Doctoroff and partners first announced their intentions for a city “built from the internet up” in Toronto’s Quayside district. As Doctoroff prepared for yet another milestone in a year of planning and community engagement, it was almost certain that of the many questions headed his way, digital privacy would be among them.

The case serves as a microcosm of issues of digital privacy: the availability of data – personal data in particular – has tremendous potential to improve people’s lives and commercial endeavors alike, but it also introduces a host of privacy perils. How can the benefits of this availability of personal data be realized while mitigating the pitfalls? Concern over firms’ use and misuse of consumers’ data has been increasing, fueling a debate surrounding the regulation of online privacy. In this case, students debate this question, and devise a framework of different approaches to resolving these issues.

Keywords: public entrepreneurship; govtech; CivicTech; smart cities; city innovation; government innovation; privacy; Sidewalk Labs; Dan Doctoroff; Entrepreneurship; Public Sector; Consumer Behavior; Governance; Business and Government Relations; Innovation and Invention; Technology Industry; Public Administration Industry; Transportation Industry; Real Estate Industry; Canada;

Citation:
John, Leslie K., Mitchell Weiss, and Julia Kelley. "Sidewalk Labs: Privacy in a City Built from the Internet Up." Harvard Business School Case 819-024, October 2018. (Revised July 2019.) (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details

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Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2018 (Revised February 2020)

Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Unbanklike Experimentation

Ryan W. Buell and Leslie K. John

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

In August 2017, Commonwealth Bank of Australia was looking for ways to differentiate itself from competing banks and was also trying to improve the financial well-being of its customers. One domain where this was particularly relevant was in its bank-issued credit card business, where customers routinely selected cards that although profitable for the bank could be a poor fit for customers’ needs—leading to low satisfaction scores, cancellations, and occasionally, financial distress. To that end, the company’s Behavioral Economics team had developed a provocative experiment dubbed “The Good and the Bad.” Rather than just presenting the strengths of its various credit card offerings, they proposed also promoting each credit card’s less-obvious drawbacks. Being transparent with customers might help them make better choices, but would those choices come at the expense of bank performance? Should a company choose to be in the sales prevention business?

Keywords: transparency; experimentation; Banks and Banking; Credit Cards; Customer Focus and Relationships; Competitive Strategy; Banking Industry; Australia;

Citation:
Buell, Ryan W., and Leslie K. John. "Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Unbanklike Experimentation." Harvard Business School Case 619-018, October 2018. (Revised February 2020.) View Details

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Case | HBS Case Collection | June 2018 (Revised October 2019)

Back to the Roots

Elizabeth A. Keenan and Leslie K. John

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

Back to the Roots (BTTR) is a start-up with a social mission to “undo food”—to reconnect people to where their food comes from. In late 2017, Back to the Roots cofounders Nikhil Arora and Alex Velez were contemplating their next move. The company had an eclectic portfolio of products, including ready-to-grow products, which included gardens in a can, and ready-to-eat products, which included cereals, and was being courted by two major players in each category. With an award-winning cereal-based snack bar in their hands, the duo was debating whether they should delve further into the ready-to-eat category. But it was a competitive space. They wondered whether they were ready to launch yet another new product and, if so, what this move would mean for their ready-to-grow product line. Which path would enable them to best achieve their growth goals?

Keywords: organic food; Startup; crowdfunding; sustainability; transparency; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Product Development; Product Marketing; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Making; Food; Food and Beverage Industry;

Citation:
Keenan, Elizabeth A., and Leslie K. John. "Back to the Roots." Harvard Business School Case 518-073, June 2018. (Revised October 2019.) (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details

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Supplement | HBS Case Collection | December 2017 (Revised January 2020)

The Campbell Home (C)

Leslie K. John and Matthew G. Preble

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

Campbell siblings Thomas and Sally are faced with selling their childhood home. They need to make several difficult consequential decisions, all the while navigating their contentious relationship. Did it make sense to hire a broker, or should they go it alone? How much was the home worth? What should the listing price be? Most importantly, what combination of answers would get them the best outcome? And along the way, as they gather information to answer these questions, several unforeseen events occur.

Keywords: negotiation; Negotiation; Negotiation Process;

Citation:
John, Leslie K., and Matthew G. Preble. "The Campbell Home (C)." Harvard Business School Supplement 918-019, December 2017. (Revised January 2020.) (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details

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Supplement | HBS Case Collection | December 2017 (Revised January 2020)

The Campbell Home (B)

Leslie K. John and Matthew G. Preble

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

Campbell siblings Thomas and Sally are faced with selling their childhood home. They need to make several difficult consequential decisions, all the while navigating their contentious relationship. Did it make sense to hire a broker, or should they go it alone? How much was the home worth? What should the listing price be? Most importantly, what combination of answers would get them the best outcome? And along the way, as they gather information to answer these questions, several unforeseen events occur.

Keywords: negotiation; Negotiation; Negotiation Process; Strategy;

Citation:
John, Leslie K., and Matthew G. Preble. "The Campbell Home (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 918-018, December 2017. (Revised January 2020.) (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details

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Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2017 (Revised January 2020)

The Campbell Home (A)

Leslie K. John and Matthew G. Preble

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

Campbell siblings Thomas and Sally are faced with selling their childhood home. They need to make several difficult consequential decisions, all the while navigating their contentious relationship. Did it make sense to hire a broker, or should they go it alone? How much was the home worth? What should the listing price be? Most importantly, what combination of answers would get them the best outcome? And along the way, as they gather information to answer these questions, several unforeseen events occur.

Keywords: agents; bidding process; Negotiation; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Preparation; Negotiation Participants; Valuation; Real Estate Industry; United States;

Citation:
John, Leslie K., and Matthew G. Preble. "The Campbell Home (A)." Harvard Business School Case 918-017, December 2017. (Revised January 2020.) (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details

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Other Teaching and Training Material | 2015

Marketing Reading: Marketing Intelligence

Robert J. Dolan and Leslie K. John

This reading provides the basic knowledge a marketing manager needs in order to choose the right combination of research methods, as well as the best way to present research findings to stakeholders. Furthermore, this Reading shows how effective decision making hinges on marketing intelligence, which is defined as a deep and informed understanding of the relationship among the customer, the marketing environment, and the company's offerings.

Keywords: marketing research; Marketing; Research;

Citation:
Dolan, Robert J., and Leslie K. John. "Marketing Reading: Marketing Intelligence." Core Curriculum Readings Series. Harvard Business Publishing 8191, 2015. View Details

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Case | HBS Case Collection | January 2015 (Revised July 2019)

CVS Health: Promoting Drug Adherence

Leslie John, John Quelch and Robert Huckman

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

The case describes a program that CVS Health recently implemented to improve medication adherence, an important problem from a societal, public policy, and firm perspective. A test of the program, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement, increased the proportion of adherent customers by 1.4 percentage points. Students are asked to quantify the system-wide economic benefit of this improvement and draw upon insights from behavioral science to examine approaches for boosting medication adherence.

Keywords: medication adherence; Affordable Care Act (ACA); Marketing Strategy; Communication Strategy; Customer Value and Value Chain; Decisions; Health Care and Treatment; Goals and Objectives; Resource Allocation; Marketing Communications; Consumer Behavior; Measurement and Metrics; Service Delivery; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Social Issues; Information Technology; Value Creation; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Insurance Industry; Public Relations Industry; Retail Industry; United States;

Citation:
John, Leslie, John Quelch, and Robert Huckman. "CVS Health: Promoting Drug Adherence." Harvard Business School Case 515-010, January 2015. (Revised July 2019.) (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details

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Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | March 2015

CVS Health: Promoting Drug Adherence

Leslie John, John Quelch and Robert Huckman

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

This Teaching Note explains the theory of the case and teaching plan for the case: CVS Health: Promoting Drug Adherence (515010). The case finds Helena Foulkes, Executive Vice President, Health Care Strategy and Marketing for CVS Health, advocating for marketing budget to be directed toward the firm’s new Pharmacy Advisor Program (PharmAP), which was designed to boost medication adherence among users of its Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) system. Foulkes had decided to focus her proposal on one ailment to establish a proof of concept for the program and then move to widespread rollout for all chronic ailments. The case requires students to put themselves in Foulkes’ position and conduct analyses required to make a case for funding to the CEO. First, students are prompted to think through the value of medication adherence to CVS and its stakeholders. Next, they determine whether, and if so, how, to improve the program such that it is worth its costs. Students realize that their suggested improvements likely will not be enough to achieve the necessary adherence such that the program breaks even. In the final area of the discussion, students quantify the value of medication adherence to the PBM’s key stakeholders (i.e., payers and employers). The key realization is that the stakeholders derive so much value from the PharmAP that together, they are incented to partner with Foulkes to ‘prime the pump’ to get the next phase of the program off the ground.

Keywords: marketing strategy; medication adherence; Affordable Care Act (ACA); Marketing Strategy; Communication Strategy; Customer Value and Value Chain; Decisions; Health Care and Treatment; Goals and Objectives; Resource Allocation; Marketing Communications; Consumer Behavior; Measurement and Metrics; Service Delivery; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Social Issues; Information Technology; Value Creation; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Insurance Industry; Public Relations Industry; Retail Industry; United States;

Citation:
John, Leslie, John Quelch, and Robert Huckman. "CVS Health: Promoting Drug Adherence." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 515-086, March 2015. (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details

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Case | HBS Case Collection | April 2014 (Revised June 2015)

Making stickK Stick: The Business of Behavioral Economics

Leslie John, Michael Norton and Michael Norris

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

stickK.com, a website that uses behavioral economics to help users achieve their goals, must choose between a direct-to-consumer or business-to-business model. The case includes a discussion of how principles of behavioral economics can be used to influence behavior, and how an understanding of behavioral economics can inform managerial decisions about product adoption and diffusion.

Keywords: Behavioral economics; behavior change; B2B vs. B2C; human resource management; marketing of innovations; health ＆ wellness; weight loss; charitable giving; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Entrepreneurship; Internet; Health; Business Model; Sales; Human Resources; Health Industry; United States;

Citation:
John, Leslie, Michael Norton, and Michael Norris. "Making stickK Stick: The Business of Behavioral Economics." Harvard Business School Case 514-019, April 2014. (Revised June 2015.) (request a courtesy copy.) View Details

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Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | February 2015 (Revised September 2016)

Making stickK Stick: The Business of Behavioral Economics

Leslie K. John and Michael Norton

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

This Teaching Note explains the theory of the case and teaching plan for the case: Making sticK Stick: The Business of Behavioral Economics (514019). The case focuses on a start-up faced with the choice of facilitating product adoption via a B2B or B2C model – or some combination of the two. The case has two primary learning objectives. First, students realize that the firm’s business model and critical success factors are fundamentally different depending on which path (B2B or B2C) is taken. Students must think through the factors that dictate how to make this decision, including how customer behavior and costs/revenues differ. Second, by developing a deep understanding of how stickK works, the case provides students with a toolkit of techniques based on research in behavioral economics to help them change and influence consumer and employee behavior more broadly.

Keywords: Behavioral economics; behavior change; B2B vs. B2C; human resource management; marketing of innovations; health ＆ wellness; weight loss; charitable giving; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Entrepreneurship; Internet; Health; Business Model; Sales; Human Resources; Health Industry; United States;

Citation:
John, Leslie K., and Michael Norton. "Making stickK Stick: The Business of Behavioral Economics." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 515-088, February 2015. (Revised September 2016.) (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details

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Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2013 (Revised April 2015)

Kiehl's Since 1851: Pathway to Profitable Growth

Robert J. Dolan and Leslie K. John

Citation:
Dolan, Robert J., and Leslie K. John. "Kiehl's Since 1851: Pathway to Profitable Growth." Harvard Business School Case 514-044, October 2013. (Revised April 2015.) (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details

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Supplement | HBS Case Collection | October 2013 (Revised March 2015)

Kiehl's Since 1851: Pathway to Profitable Growth (B)

Robert J. Dolan and Leslie K. John

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

Citation:
Dolan, Robert J., and Leslie K. John. "Kiehl's Since 1851: Pathway to Profitable Growth (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 514-046, October 2013. (Revised March 2015.) (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details

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Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | March 2015

Kiehl's Since 1851: Pathway to Profitable Growth

Leslie John and Robert J. Dolan

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

Citation:
John, Leslie, and Robert J. Dolan. "Kiehl's Since 1851: Pathway to Profitable Growth." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 515-087, March 2015. (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details

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