Advice and Influence

Mental health: pressure to return to the office could be making employees more anxious

Popular Press / By

Many employers are eager for staff to return to the office after a year of social distancing, mask wearing, and working from home. However, a recent survey of 4,553 office workers in five different countries, found that every single person reported feeling anxious about resuming in-person work. The top causes of return-to-work stress included being …

Mental health: pressure to return to the office could be making employees more anxious Read More »

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

Journal Publication / By

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 »

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

Journal Publication / By

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 »

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

Journal Publication / By

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, …

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

Conflicts of interest and disclosure

Report / By

The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry was established on 14 December 2017 by the former Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd) to enquire into misconduct in the banking, superannuation and financial services industry. I was asked by the Royal Commission to respond to the following questions: How …

Conflicts of interest and disclosure Read More »

Effect of physician disclosure of specialty bias on patient trust and treatment choice.

Journal Publication / By

Abstract This paper explores the impact of disclosures of bias on advisees. Disclosure—informing advisees of a potential bias—is a popular solution for managing conflicts of interest. Prior research has focused almost exclusively on disclosures of financial conflicts of interest but little is known about how disclosures of other types of biases could impact advisees. In …

Effect of physician disclosure of specialty bias on patient trust and treatment choice. Read More »

Conflicted advice and second opinions: Benefits, but unintended consequences.

Journal Publication / By

Abstract Second opinions have been advocated as an antidote to bias in advice when primary advisors have conflicts of interest. In four experiments, we demonstrate how primary advisors alter their advice due to knowledge of the presence of a second advisor. We show that advisors give more biased advice and adopt a profit-maximizing frame when …

Conflicted advice and second opinions: Benefits, but unintended consequences. Read More »

Nothing to declare: Mandatory and voluntary disclosure leads advisors to avoid conflicts of interest.

Journal Publication / By

Abstract Professionals face conflicts of interest when they have a personal interest in giving biased advice. Mandatory disclosure—informing consumers of the conflict—is a widely adopted strategy in numerous professions, such as medicine, finance, and accounting. Prior research has shown, however, that such disclosures have little impact on consumer behavior, and can backfire by leading advisors …

Nothing to declare: Mandatory and voluntary disclosure leads advisors to avoid conflicts of interest. Read More »

The burden of disclosure: Increased compliance with distrusted advice.

Journal Publication / By

Abstract Professionals often face conflicts of interest that give them an incentive to provide biased advice, and disclosure (informing advisees about the conflict) is frequently proposed as a solution to the problem. We present 6 experiments that reveal a previously unrecognized perverse effect of disclosure: Although disclosure can decrease advisees’ trust in the advice, it …

The burden of disclosure: Increased compliance with distrusted advice. Read More »