Research

Raise your hand if you’ve got a smartphone next to you. This one’s for you.

“Brain Drain,” a 2017 research paper co-authored by Rady School professor Ayelet Gneezy and Ph.D. graduate Kristen Duke ( ’19) was recently recognized as having the highest social impact according to a best in class survey by Financial Times.

Gneezy and Duke’s research tested the “brain drain” hypothesis, that the “mere presence” of your smartphone might make it more difficult for you to engage with the task at hand, even when you’re resisting the temptation to actually check your phone. (Their research suggests that it does.)

Now raise your hand if you’ve just thrown your phone out the window.

To measure social impact, Financial Times first asked business schools to submit up to five research papers published within the last five years for consideration. Using Altmetrics, Financial Times measured “the online resonance that each [research paper] had with the wider world beyond universities,” including data such as academic citations, blog references and tweets. “Brain Drain” received an Altmetric score of 3956, more than five times higher than the second-highest-scoring paper.

Another paper, co-authored by Rady School Professor Sally Sadoff, “The Behavioralist Goes to School: Leveraging Behavioral Economics to Improve Educational Performance,” was also recognized among the top 100 results in the survey.

You’ve rehearsed your pitch over and over again to prepare for the big meeting. So, how do you tell your story without sounding rehearsed?

Let’s ask Associate Professor of Marketing Rachel Gershon.

Gershon’s research focuses on understanding and improving human decision making with a focus on social and prosocial behavior. Some of her research looks at perceptions of authenticity.

In the paper Twice-told tales: Self-repetition decreases observer assessments of performer authenticity, Gershon and her co-author describe how we generally assume social interactions to be unique. When we find out that someone is repeating themselves, we find them to be less authentic, and in turn, we feel less likely to want to engage with them in the future.

Watch the video below for a research-backed tip on how you can repeat a performance—and still appear authentic—the next time you speak in public.