Journal Publication

Published Peer-Reviewed Academic Journals

Conflict of interest disclosure with high quality advice: The disclosure penalty and the altruistic signal.

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Abstract Advisors often have conflicts of interest: a potential clash between professional responsibilities and self-interests. Disclosure—informing advisees of the conflict—is a common policy response to manage such conflicts. However, extant research on disclosure has often confounded disclosure with poor-quality advice. In this article, we explore whether laws requiring conflict of interest disclosure damage the advisor–advisee […]

Conflict of interest disclosure with high quality advice: The disclosure penalty and the altruistic signal. Read More »

Mind the (information) gap: Strategic non-disclosure by marketers and interventions to increase consumer deliberation.

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Marketers have a choice of what to tell consumers and consumers must consider what they are told or not told. Across 6 experiments, we show that consumers fail to differentiate between deliberate and nondeliberate missing information (strategic naiveté) and make generous inferences when they do notice missing information is deliberately withheld (charitability). We also show

Mind the (information) gap: Strategic non-disclosure by marketers and interventions to increase consumer deliberation. Read More »

Understanding the (Perverse) Effects of Disclosing Conflicts of Interest: A Direct Replication Study.

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Abstract Advisors are often subject to conflicts of interest—a potential clash between their professional responsibilities and personal interests. Such conflicts can increase bias in advice. Although disclosure is frequently proposed to manage conflicts of interest, it can have unintended consequences on both advisees and advisors. In seminal work, Cain et al., 2005, Cain et al.,

Understanding the (Perverse) Effects of Disclosing Conflicts of Interest: A Direct Replication Study. Read More »

Conflict of interest disclosure as a reminder of professional norms. Clients First!

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Abstract Conflicts of interest create an incentive for advisors to give biased advice, and disclosure is a popular remedy. Across a series of studies, with monetary stakes creating conflicts of interest, I show that disclosure of the conflict of interest can increase as well as decrease bias in advice. The effect of disclosure depends on

Conflict of interest disclosure as a reminder of professional norms. Clients First! Read More »

Clinical practice guidelines and the overuse of health care services: need for reform

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Key Points Specialty bias and fee-for-service conflicts of interest threaten the validity of clinical practice guidelines and may lead to overdiagnosis, overtreatment and increasing health care costs. Clinical practice guidelines issued by medical specialty societies in North America frequently call for greater use of health care services linked to their specialties and are often at

Clinical practice guidelines and the overuse of health care services: need for reform Read More »

Insinuation Anxiety: Concern That Advice Rejection Will Signal Distrust After Conflict of Interest Disclosures

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Abstract When expert advisors have conflicts of interest, disclosure is a common regulatory response. In four experiments (three scenario experiments involving medical contexts, and one field experiment involving financial consequences for both parties), we show that disclosure of a financial or nonfinancial conflict of interest can have a perverse effect on the advisor–advisee relationship. Disclosure,

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Conflict of interest disclosure as an expertise cue: Differential effects of automatic and deliberative processing.

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Abstract Disclosure—informing advice recipients of the potential bias of an advisor—is a popular tool to manage conflicts of interest. However, conflict of interest disclosures usually compete with a host of other information that is important, relevant or interesting to the advisee. Across one field study and five experiments, we examine the effect of conflict of

Conflict of interest disclosure as an expertise cue: Differential effects of automatic and deliberative processing. Read More »

A call for more science in forensic science.

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Abstract Forensic science is critical to the administration of justice. The discipline of forensic science is remarkably complex and includes methodologies ranging from DNA analysis to chemical composition to pattern recognition. Many forensic practices developed under the auspices of law enforcement and were vetted primarily by the legal system rather than being subjected to scientific

A call for more science in forensic science. Read More »

Policy solutions to conflicts of interest: the value of professional norms

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Abstract Advisors, such as physicians, financial advisors, lawyers and accountants, often face a conflict of interest – that is, a clash between their professional and personal interests. Such conflicts can lead to biased and corrupt advice. In this paper, I focus on how conflicts of interest can cause good people to unintentionally cross ethical boundaries

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The effects of public disclosure of industry payments to physicians on patient trust: A randomized experiment.

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Abstract Financial ties between physicians and the pharmaceutical and medical device industry are common, but little is known about how patient trust is affected by these ties. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how viewing online public disclosure of industry payments affects patients’ trust ratings for physicians, the medical profession, and the pharmaceutical

The effects of public disclosure of industry payments to physicians on patient trust: A randomized experiment. Read More »