- +0092799602422
- Guy Hochman completed his university studies in Israel and received a PhD degree in Psychology from the Technion – Is... moreGuy Hochman completed his university studies in Israel and received a PhD degree in Psychology from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in 2010. Dr. Hochman was a post-doc at the Fuqua School of Business in Duke University under the supervision of Professor Dan Ariely. Currently, He is the head of the MA program in Behavioral Economics at IDC. Dr. Hochman’s main research interests are heuristics and biases, behavioral economics, pro-social and anti-social behavior, and the cognitive processes underlie decision making. In addition, Dr. Hochman study brain processes and physiological measures such as Pupil Diameter and Heart Rate, and their relation to behavioral decision making. Dr. Hochman’s research interest also include organizational behavior, and during his time in Duke University he conducted multiple research projects among American firms, in an attempt to better understand how employees could be better incentivized and motivated, and how decision making research could be implemented to create better management and marketing strategies.edit
Experiences of financial scarcity (i.e., perceptions of “having less than needed”) can distort decision-making, capture attention, and make individuals risk-seeking and short-term oriented. However, the influence of scarcity on... more
Experiences of financial scarcity (i.e., perceptions of “having less than needed”) can distort decision-making, capture attention, and make individuals risk-seeking and short-term oriented. However, the influence of scarcity on information acquisition and ethical decision-making remains poorly understood. This eye-tracking study explored how acute financial scarcity affects ethical decision-making and shapes selective information search in an economic task with competing incentives (N = 60). Contrary to predictions, participants experiencing scarcity were less likely to cheat for economic gains, indicating that scarcity does not necessarily reduce ethical behavior. Participants displayed a strong attentional bias towards high-paying choices but did not act unethically. These findings might reveal a "moral boundary" dictating when attentional biases translate into decision-making. Our results contribute to understanding how individuals in scarcity contexts process and prior...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
תקציר בעברית: מומחים כלכליים ופיננסיים מצופים להיות חסינים מפני שיקולים זרים ותהליכים פסיכולוגיים אשר עלולים להשפיע על איכות החלטתם. אף על פי כן, ממצאים מחקריים מעידים על כך כי גם מומחים פיננסיים, חשופים להשפעתן של הטיות התנהגותיות ואינם... more
תקציר בעברית: מומחים כלכליים ופיננסיים מצופים להיות חסינים מפני שיקולים זרים ותהליכים פסיכולוגיים אשר עלולים להשפיע על איכות החלטתם. אף על פי כן, ממצאים מחקריים מעידים על כך כי גם מומחים פיננסיים, חשופים להשפעתן של הטיות התנהגותיות ואינם חסינים מפני פגיעה בתהליכי שיפוט והערכה. במאמר זה אנו בוחנים את יעילותם של מומחים כלכליים ופיננסיים בצמצום הטיות התנהגותיות המשקפות קבלת החלטות בקרב פרטים שאינם מומחים. בחינה זו שופכת אור על הבחירה בין פנייה לייעוץ כלכלי או פיננסי לבין החלטה אישית שאינה נעזרת בחוות דעת של בעל מומחיות. המאמר פותח בסקירה והגדרה כללית של המונח מומחיות, לאחר מכן דן במומחיות בקבלת החלטות בכלל ובמומחיות בהחלטות פיננסיות בפרט, ולבסוף עומד על הקשר בין מומחיות פיננסית לאיכות קבלת ההחלטה תוך הבאת דוגמאות להטיות ההתנהגותיות העיקריות אשר פוגמות באיכות קבלת ההחלטות בקרב מומחים.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In two studies, we tested the power of revenge as a justification mechanism that enables people to cheat with a clear conscience. Specifically, we explored the effects of prior dishonesty and unfairness towards participants on their... more
In two studies, we tested the power of revenge as a justification mechanism that
enables people to cheat with a clear conscience. Specifically, we explored the effects
of prior dishonesty and unfairness towards participants on their subsequent moral
behavior, as well as the physiological arousal associated with it. To this end, we
employed a two-phase procedure. In the first phase, participants played one round of a
bargaining game (the Ultimatum game in Study 1 and the Dictator game in Study 2) in
which we manipulated whether the players had been treated (un)fairly and (dis)honestly by their opponent. In the second phase, they did a perceptual task that allowed them to cheat for monetary gain at the expense of their opponent from the first phase. In Study 1, participants also took a lie detector test to assess whether their dishonesty in the second phase could be detected. The behavioral results in both studies indicated that the opponent’s dishonesty was a stronger driver than the opponent’s unfairness for cheating as a form of retaliation. However, the physiological arousal results suggest that feeling mistreated in general (and not just cheated) allowed the participants to get revenge by cheating the offender while dismissing their associated guilt feelings.
enables people to cheat with a clear conscience. Specifically, we explored the effects
of prior dishonesty and unfairness towards participants on their subsequent moral
behavior, as well as the physiological arousal associated with it. To this end, we
employed a two-phase procedure. In the first phase, participants played one round of a
bargaining game (the Ultimatum game in Study 1 and the Dictator game in Study 2) in
which we manipulated whether the players had been treated (un)fairly and (dis)honestly by their opponent. In the second phase, they did a perceptual task that allowed them to cheat for monetary gain at the expense of their opponent from the first phase. In Study 1, participants also took a lie detector test to assess whether their dishonesty in the second phase could be detected. The behavioral results in both studies indicated that the opponent’s dishonesty was a stronger driver than the opponent’s unfairness for cheating as a form of retaliation. However, the physiological arousal results suggest that feeling mistreated in general (and not just cheated) allowed the participants to get revenge by cheating the offender while dismissing their associated guilt feelings.
Research Interests:
In these preliminary questionnaires, we will gather information about the gaps between the way subjects think about the ideal break during the workday and the actual breaks they take.
The recognition heuristic (RH; Goldstein and Gigerenzer, 2002) suggests that, when applicable, probabilistic inferences are based on a noncompensatory examination of whether an object is recognized or not. The overall findings on the... more
The recognition heuristic (RH; Goldstein and Gigerenzer, 2002) suggests that, when applicable, probabilistic inferences are based on a noncompensatory examination of whether an object is recognized or not. The overall findings on the processes that underlie this fast and frugal heuristic are somewhat mixed, and many studies have expressed the need for considering a more compensatory integration of recognition information. Regardless of the mechanism involved, it is clear that recognition has a strong influence on choices, and this finding might be explained by the fact that recognition cues arouse affect and thus receive more attention than cognitive cues. To test this assumption, we investigated whether recognition results in a direct affective signal by measuring physiological arousal (i.e., peripheral arterial tone) in the established city-size task. We found that recognition of cities does not directly result in increased physiological arousal. Moreover, the results show that ph...
Research Interests:
In a Covid19 pandemic context, governments, as well as companies, enforced important regulations to slow the development and spread of the disease. Among such regulation is the obligation for any citizen to wear a mask (either surgical,... more
In a Covid19 pandemic context, governments, as well as companies, enforced important regulations to slow the development and spread of the disease. Among such regulation is the obligation for any citizen to wear a mask (either surgical, N95, or cloth) in public and shared spaces. The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now include face masks in their recommendations for slowing the virus's spread. In 2011, Zhong and his colleagues revealed that people placed in dark rooms were more likely to behave unethically than people in a well-lit room. They suggested darkness to generate an illusion of anonymity that induced a false sense of concealment, leading people to feel anonymous and less restrained to behave dishonestly. They also showed that such an illusion of anonymity could be generated by wearing a pair of sunglasses. The aim of this study is to examine whether asking participants to wear masks could exert an influence on the...
Research Interests:
Dual process models of reasoning and thinking styles suggest that deliberative decision processes and profound evaluation lead people to better financial decisions. However, recent developments in decision-making research indicate that... more
Dual process models of reasoning and thinking styles suggest that deliberative decision processes and profound evaluation lead people to better financial decisions. However, recent developments in decision-making research indicate that under certain conditions, a more automatic evaluation can lead to better decisions whereas further deliberative and thorough evaluation may lead to biased decisions. Here, we examined the nature of basic financial decision-making based on an intuitive, more automatic evaluation and characterize their advantages and disadvantages compared to a deliberative deep examination. By manipulating response time on an online questionnaire, participants were forced to make inferences and financial decisions under an intuitive or a deliberative mode of thought. Unexpectedly, the results show that in specific situations financial decisions were better under an intuitive mode of thought than a more analytical and deliberative style.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The positive effect of losses on performance has been explained as due to the increased weighting of losses compared to gains. We examine an alternative approach whereby this effect is mediated by attentional processes. Using the dual... more
The positive effect of losses on performance has been explained as due to the increased weighting of losses compared to gains. We examine an alternative approach whereby this effect is mediated by attentional processes. Using the dual task paradigm, it was expected that positive effects of losses on performance would emerge under attentional scarcity, and diffuse to a concurrently presented task. In Study 1, decision performance was compared for a task involving gains or losses, when it was performed alone or as a secondary task. The results showed a significant 40 % improvement in performance in the loss condition, but only under resource scarcity, when the task was secondary. In Study 2 the same task was presented as a primary task. Again, losses were associated with improved performance in the secondary task. Since this secondary task did not include losses, these findings demonstrate an attentional spillover effect.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The recognition heuristic (RH; Goldstein \& Gigerenzer, 2002) suggests that, when applicable, probabilistic inferences are based on a noncompensatory examination of whether an object is recognized or not. The overall findings on the... more
The recognition heuristic (RH; Goldstein \& Gigerenzer, 2002) suggests that, when applicable, probabilistic inferences are based on a noncompensatory examination of whether an object is recognized or not. The overall findings on the processes that underlie this fast and frugal heuristic are somewhat mixed, and many studies have expressed the need for considering a more compensatory integration of recognition information. Regardless of the mechanism involved, it is clear that recognition has a strong influence on choices, and this finding might be explained by the fact that recognition cues arouse affect and thus receive more attention than cognitive cues. To test this assumption, we investigated whether recognition results in a direct affective signal by measuring physiological arousal (i.e., peripheral arterial tone) in the established city-size task. We found that recognition of cities does not directly result in increased physiological arousal. Moreover, the results show that phy...
Research Interests:
Despite its controversial status, the lie detection test is still a popular organizational instrument for credibility assessment. Due to its popularity, we examined the effect of the lie-detection test feedback on subsequent moral... more
Despite its controversial status, the lie detection test is still a popular organizational instrument for credibility assessment. Due to its popularity, we examined the effect of the lie-detection test feedback on subsequent moral behavior. In three studies, participants could cheat to increase their monetary payoff in two consecutive phases. Between these two phases the participants underwent a mock polygraph test and were randomly given Deception Indicated (DI) or No Deception Indicated (NDI) assigned feedback. Then, participants engaged in the second phase of the task and their level of dishonesty was measured. Study 1 showed that both NDI and DI feedback (but not the control) reduced cheating behavior on the subsequent task. However, Study 2 showed that the mere presence of the lie-detection test (without feedback) did not produce the same effect. When the role of the lie detector as a moral reminder was cancelled out in Study 3, feedback had no effect on the magnitude of cheati...
Abstract The impact of watching eyes cues and descriptive social norm messages on fare evasion was studied in two experiments that were conducted in two railway stations in France. In Study 1, a natural field experiment, passengers were... more
Abstract The impact of watching eyes cues and descriptive social norm messages on fare evasion was studied in two experiments that were conducted in two railway stations in France. In Study 1, a natural field experiment, passengers were exposed for a two-week period to either a control eye-cues poster or to an experimental eye-cues with a social norm messaging campaign. In Study 2, an artefactual experiment in the field, participants in the experimental train station were asked to participate in a lying task before and after they were exposed to the messaging campaign. The results from both studies suggest that although watching eye cues alone are not effective in a crowded train station, exposing passengers to watching eye cues together with a descriptive social norm messaging campaign reduced the fare evasion rates observed by standard inspection operations, and eliminated lying behavior measured by the die-under-cup paradigm. These results strengthen the external validity of laboratory experiments that have documented small scale cheating behavior and highlight the potential benefits of internal enforcement techniques to fight dishonesty in the field. In addition, they stress the advantage of combining visibility cues and social norms when orienting people toward more moral behavior.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The dual-system approach holds that deliberative decisions and in-depth evaluation processes lead people to better financial decisions. However, research identifies situations where optimal economic decisions may stem from a more... more
The dual-system approach holds that deliberative decisions and in-depth evaluation processes lead people to better financial decisions. However, research identifies situations where optimal economic decisions may stem from a more intuitive decision process. In the current work, we present three experimental studies that examined how these two modes-of-thought affect financial decisions. In Study 1, deliberative processes were indeed associated with better one-shot descriptive-based financial decisions. However, Study 2 showed that when participants were asked to make repeated decisions and were required to learn from their experience, the advantage of deliberative over intuitive processes was eliminated. In addition, when participants employed intuitive processes, the quality of their financial decisions improved significantly with experience. Finally, Study 3 showed that the deliberative processing style may lose its advantage when information is not fully available. Overall, these...
Research Interests:
Background: Job satisfaction is a key factor in organizational growth and success. Intern satisfaction, on the contrary, has not received much attention, despite its effect on all relevant players. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to... more
Background: Job satisfaction is a key factor in organizational growth and success. Intern satisfaction, on the contrary, has not received much attention, despite its effect on all relevant players. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine factors affecting intern satisfaction in startup companies through the lens of the Job Characteristics Model (JCM) and additional work environment characteristics. Methodology/Approach: A total of 434 undergraduate students—participating in an unpaid internship for 10 weeks—filled out a 20-item survey regarding their experience. Items were designed to measure core job characteristics, the consequent experienced psychological states, work environment characteristics, and participants’ satisfaction. Findings/Conclusions: Factors affecting intern satisfaction corresponded to predictions of the JCM as evidenced by three mediation models. Core job characteristics predicted hypothesized psychological states, which then predicted intern satisfacti...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Social presence has two opposing effects on human corruption: the collaborative and contagious nature of another person's presence can cause people to behave in a more corrupt manner. In contrast, the monitoring nature of another... more
Social presence has two opposing effects on human corruption: the collaborative and contagious nature of another person's presence can cause people to behave in a more corrupt manner. In contrast, the monitoring nature of another person's presence can decrease corruption. We hypothesize that a robot's presence can provide the best of both worlds: Decreasing corruption by providing a monitoring presence, without increasing it by collusion. We describe an experimental study currently underway that examines this hypothesis, and report on initial findings from pilot runs of our experimental protocol.
Research Interests:
The affect heuristic (Slovic, Finucane, Peters, & MacGregor, 2002) claims that people (sometimes) decide on the sole basis of automatic affective responses to options (affective tags / somatic markers; Damasio, 1994). Such affective... more
The affect heuristic (Slovic, Finucane, Peters, & MacGregor, 2002) claims that people (sometimes) decide on the sole basis of automatic affective responses to options (affective tags / somatic markers; Damasio, 1994). Such affective responses can be considered as aspects of intuition that can be tracked physiologically using different methods, such as measuring Skin Conductance Response (SCR), Pupil Diameter (PD), and Peripheral Arterial Tone (PAT). These methods can be used to inform researchers about intuitive choice tendencies of which sometimes decision makers are not aware (Bechara, Damasio, Tranel, & Damasio, 1997). We discuss the application of these measures and outline decision tasks often used in this line of research (e.g., Iowa Gambling Task). Pros and cons of the methods and the tasks are discussed. Then we outline how SCR, PD, and PAT can be used to identify intuitive processes and their interplay with deliberation. Finally, we suggest several directions in which resea...
Experimental Psychology 2011; Vol. 58(6):509–516 DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/a000140 ... 171 Can Emotion Modulate Attention? Evidence for Reciprocal Links in the Attentional Network Test Noga Cohen, Avishai Henik, and Nilly Mor 180 Parallel... more
Experimental Psychology 2011; Vol. 58(6):509–516 DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/a000140 ... 171 Can Emotion Modulate Attention? Evidence for Reciprocal Links in the Attentional Network Test Noga Cohen, Avishai Henik, and Nilly Mor 180 Parallel Constraint Satisfaction in Memory-Based Decisions Andreas Glöckner and Sara D. Hodges 196 Multiple-Object Tracking: The Binding of Spatial Location and Featural Identity K. Botterill, R. Allen, and P. McGeorge 201 Holistic Representation of Unit Fractions Dana Ganor-Stern, Irina Karasik-Rivkin, and Joseph Tzelgov 207 ...
Research Interests:
... and reverse biases Shahar Ayal∗ Guy Hochman Dan Zakay Abstract ... judgments. For example, Shiloh, Soltan, and Sharabi (2002) reported systematic individ-ual differences in participants' normative-statistical vs. heuristic... more
... and reverse biases Shahar Ayal∗ Guy Hochman Dan Zakay Abstract ... judgments. For example, Shiloh, Soltan, and Sharabi (2002) reported systematic individ-ual differences in participants' normative-statistical vs. heuristic responses. ...
Research Interests:
A framework is presented to better characterize the role of individual differences in information processing style and their interplay with contextual factors in determining decision making quality. In Experiment 1, we show that... more
A framework is presented to better characterize the role of individual differences in information processing style and their interplay with contextual factors in determining decision making quality. In Experiment 1, we show that individual differences in information processing style are flexible and can be modified by situational factors. Specifically, a situational manipulation that induced an analytical mode of thought improved decision quality. In Experiment 2, we show that this improvement in decision quality is highly contingent on the compatibility between the dominant thinking mode and the nature of the task. That is, encouraging an intuitive mode of thought led to better performance on an intuitive task but hampered performance on an analytical task. The reverse pattern was obtained when an analytical mode of thought was encouraged. We discuss the implications of these results for the assessment of decision making competence, and suggest practical directions to help individuals better adjust their information processing style to the situation at hand and make optimal decisions.
Research Interests:
The recognition heuristic (RH; Goldstein and Gigerenzer, 2002) suggests that, when applicable, probabilistic inferences are based on a noncompensatory examination of whether an object is recognized or not. The overall findings on the... more
The recognition heuristic (RH; Goldstein and Gigerenzer, 2002) suggests that, when applicable, probabilistic inferences are based on a noncompensatory examination of whether an object is recognized or not. The overall findings on the processes that underlie this fast and frugal heuristic are somewhat mixed, and many studies have expressed the need for considering a more compensatory integration of recognition information. Regardless of the mechanism involved, it is clear that recognition has a strong influence on choices, and this finding might be explained by the fact that recognition cues arouse affect and thus receive more attention than cognitive cues. To test this assumption, we investigated whether recognition results in a direct affective signal by measuring physiological arousal (i.e., peripheral arterial tone) in the established city-size task. We found that recognition of cities does not directly result in increased physiological arousal. Moreover, the results show that ph...
Research Interests:
The recognition heuristic (RH; Goldstein \& Gigerenzer, 2002) suggests that, when applicable, probabilistic inferences are based on a noncompensatory examination of whether an object is recognized or not. The overall findings on the... more
The recognition heuristic (RH; Goldstein \& Gigerenzer, 2002) suggests that, when applicable, probabilistic inferences are based on a noncompensatory examination of whether an object is recognized or not. The overall findings on the processes that underlie this fast and frugal heuristic are somewhat mixed, and many studies have expressed the need for considering a more compensatory integration of recognition information. Regardless of the mechanism involved, it is clear that recognition has a strong influence on choices, and this finding might be explained by the fact that recognition cues arouse affect and thus receive more attention than cognitive cues. To test this assumption, we investigated whether recognition results in a direct affective signal by measuring physiological arousal (i.e., peripheral arterial tone) in the established city-size task. We found that recognition of cities does not directly result in increased physiological arousal. Moreover, the results show that phy...
Research Interests:
The recognition heuristic (RH; Goldstein & Gigerenzer, 2002) suggests that, when applicable, probabilistic inferences are based on a noncompensatory examination of whether an object is recognized or not. The overall findings on the... more
The recognition heuristic (RH; Goldstein & Gigerenzer, 2002) suggests that, when applicable, probabilistic inferences are based on a noncompensatory examination of whether an object is recognized or not. The overall findings on the processes that underlie this fast and frugal heuristic are somewhat mixed, and many studies have expressed the need for considering a more compensatory integration of recognition information. Regardless of the mechanism involved, it is clear that recognition has a strong influence on choices, and this finding might be explained by the fact that recognition cues arouse affect and thus receive more attention than cognitive cues. To test this assumption, we investigated whether recognition results in a direct affective signal by measuring physiological arousal (i.e., peripheral arterial tone) in the established city-size task. We found that recognition of cities does not directly result in increased physiological arousal. Moreover, the results show that phys...
Research Interests:
This paper examines the effect of information processing styles (indexed by the Rational-Experiential Inventory of Pacini and Epstein, 1999) on adherence to bias judgments, and particularly to reverse biases; i.e., when two choice... more
This paper examines the effect of information processing styles (indexed by the Rational-Experiential Inventory of Pacini and Epstein, 1999) on adherence to bias judgments, and particularly to reverse biases; i.e., when two choice questions that comprise identical normative components are set in different situations and yield seemingly opposite behavioral biases. We found consistent evidence for a negative correlation between rational score and adherence to reverse biases, as well as overall biases, for all three pairs of reverse biases tested. Further, this effect of rational thinking was more pronounced for high experiential individuals, in that high-rational and high-experiential participants committed fewer biases than all other participants. These results lend weight to our claim that low-rational individuals, who are more sensitive to the context, are more prone to utilize some attribute of the provided information when it is uncalled for, but at the same time tend to ignore i...
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT The use of short-term bonuses to motivate employees has become an organizational regularity, but a thorough understanding of the relationship between these incentives and actual performance is lacking. We aim to advance this... more
ABSTRACT The use of short-term bonuses to motivate employees has become an organizational regularity, but a thorough understanding of the relationship between these incentives and actual performance is lacking. We aim to advance this understanding by examining how three types of bonuses (cash, family meal voucher, and verbal reward) affect employees’ productivity in a field experiment conducted in a high-tech manufacturing factory. While all types of bonuses increased performance by over 4%, non-monetary short term-bonuses had a slight advantage over monetary bonuses. In addition, the removal of the bonuses led to decreased productivity for monetary bonuses but not for the verbal reward. However, this negative effect of monetary short term-bonuses diminishes when a cash bonus is chosen by employees rather than granted by default. Theoretical implications about the effect of short-term bonuses on intrinsic motivation and reciprocity, as well as practical applications of short-term bonus plans that stem from our findings are discussed.
Research Interests:
While both economic and social considerations of fairness and equity play an important role in financial decision-making, it is not clear which of these two motives is more primal and immediate and which one is secondary and slow. Here we... more
While both economic and social considerations of fairness and equity play an important role in financial decision-making, it is not clear which of these two motives is more primal and immediate and which one is secondary and slow. Here we used variants of the ultimatum game to examine this question. Experiment 1 shows that acceptance rate of unfair offers increases when participants are asked to base their choice on their gut-feelings, as compared to when they thoroughly consider the available information. In line with these results, Experiments 2 and 3 provide process evidence that individuals prefer to first examine economic information about their own utility rather than social information about equity and fairness, even at the price of foregoing such social information. Our results suggest that people are more economically rational at the core, but social considerations (e.g., inequality aversion) require deliberation, which under certain conditions override their self-intereste...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Losses are commonly thought to result in a neuropsychological avoidance response. We suggest that losses also provide ecological guidance by increasing focus on the task at hand, and that this effect may override the avoidance response.... more
Losses are commonly thought to result in a neuropsychological avoidance response. We suggest that losses also provide ecological guidance by increasing focus on the task at hand, and that this effect may override the avoidance response. This prediction was tested in a series of studies. In Study 1a we found that minor losses did not lead to an avoidance response. Instead, they guided participants to make advantageous choices (in terms of expected value) and to avoid disadvantageous choices. Moreover, losses were associated with less switching between options after the first block of exploration. In Study 1b we found that this effect was not simply a by-product of the increase in visual contrast with losses. In Study 1c we found that the effect of losses did not emerge when alternatives did not differ in their expected value but only in their risk level. In Study 2 we investigated the autonomic arousal dynamics associated with this behavioral pattern via pupillometric responses. The ...