Hengchen Dai
Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and Behavioral Decision Making
About
Hengchen Dai’s work is at home in the thriving tech and business environment of Los Angeles, where companies rely more and more on big data and the kind of custom analytics that drive her research. She seeks out opportunities to work with corporations, educational institutions and online platforms to conduct field studies that get to the heart of what motivates people. She seeks to advance understanding of when people are more or less likely to behave in line with their long-term best interests both inside and outside the workplace, and then applies insights from behavioral economics and psychology to steer people toward far-sighted decision-making.
Topics
17 Articles
The Case for Field Experiments in Behavioral Research
Nudges already proven to work in the real-world increased uptake of COVID-19 boosters; nudges based on lab findings and expert insights, not so much
Lack of Urgency Can Undermine a Popular Behavioral Nudge
Encouraging pre-commitment to a future behavior helps people do hard things — but it can backfire
Startling Productivity Leap: an Algorithm, Not a Manager, Assigns Work
Warehouse pickers perceive process to be fairer
Doctors, Subjected to Peer Comparison, Felt Increased Burnout
Nudge to improve preventive medicine performance didn’t work – and yielded discontent
Fresh-Start Framing Boosts Retirement Plan Participation
A behavioral nudge passes a real-world test with 6,000 workers
Texting Our Way Closer to Herd Immunity
A simple message with a behavioral nudge boosts vaccination rate
Wage Transparency Might Make Income Inequality Even Worse
Unintended consequences in trying to apply market solutions
Motivation to Begin or an Excuse to Slack Off?
Fresh-start dates can serve as either — it’s a two-way nudge
Retailing Cross-Platform Win: A Pop-Up Store Boosts Online Sales
Alibaba finds a fresh twist on an old-school store is an effective marketing tool
Online Reviews Sway Experiential Purchases Less Than Those of Material Products
Reviews that explicitly talk about objective quality assessments are well received
How to Spot a Nudge Gone Rogue
Researchers find common warning signs in persuasion projects that went wrong
Not All Second Chances Are Good Ones
Hengchen Dai finds that hitting the reset button can help those who have recently struggled, but erodes the motivation and execution of top performers
Why Kickstarter Funders Quickly Kick in the Last 5 Percent
Research shows that people have a sincere desire to see projects take flight
Online Coupons Work in the Moment but Don’t Seem to Alter the Seller-Shopper Relationship
Studying 1 million Alibaba users, Hengchen Dai mostly confirms the transactional nature of internet retailing
Behavioral Nudges Timed to Certain Days are Effective Motivator
Dates of milestones — major and minor — can spur us to action
In Adversity, Some High Performers Give Up Rather than Dig In
The world of tennis sheds light on a potential downside to office ranking systems
Hospital Hand-Washing: The Limits of Electronic Monitoring
The anti-infection procedure rises for a time, when workers are watched, and then falls off