“Hidden Failures: Why We Don’t Share Negative Information and What We Might Miss,” Ayelet Fishbach, University of Chicago

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES WORKSHOP

We live in a society that celebrates failure as a teachable moment. Yet, failure would undermine learning if people ignore it — if in response to failure, people stop paying attention. Our experiment documents that people indeed fail to learn from failure and further do not share information on failure with others.

Ayelet Fishbach is the Jeffrey Breakenridge Keller Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. She studies motivation and decision making. Fishbach has authored over 100 publications. She served as the president of the International Social Cognition Network (ISCON) and she is the president elect of the Society for the Study of Motivation. She is the recipient of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology’s Best Dissertation Award, Career Trajectory Award, and the Fulbright Educational Foundation Award.

The Behavioral Sciences Workshop is cosponsored by the Center for the Study of American Politics (CSAP) and the School of Management’s International Center for Finance and Whitebox Advisors fund. Lunch will be served.