PurposeLabor market studies show that job applicants are naturally inclined to embellish or omit ... more PurposeLabor market studies show that job applicants are naturally inclined to embellish or omit information on their resumes, to gain advantage over other applicants. Religiosity can reveal much about an individual's sense of right and wrong and it has importance as a social force with a foundational role in ethical development. The study’s objective is to clarify the relationship between personal religiosity and the intentional deceitful presentation of information on resumes, as well as the judgment of situations with ethical content.Design/methodology/approachThe study is comprised of Jewish adult participants that submitted a resume in search of a job in the past 30 weeks in Israel. The questionnaire included questions regarding resume fraud, tolerance towards unethical and illegal behaviors and demographic and occupational questions.FindingsThe authors' results indicate that religious status may be a predictor of resume deception. Religious applicants reported more rig...
Proceedings of the 48th International Academic Conference, Copenhagen, 2019
For macro-economists, the importance of holiday gift-giving is the effect of spending on the macr... more For macro-economists, the importance of holiday gift-giving is the effect of spending on the macro economy. However, for micro-economists, gift-giving has a different important aspect. The choices of purchasing are made by someone other than the recipient, the final consumer. Recipients sometimes receive gifts they do not like because the giver does not really know with any degree of accuracy the recipients' preferences. Such gifts are welfare reducing (deadweight loss) compared to giving cash. The cost of the gift is higher than its value to the recipient. In this study, we examine whether purchasing holiday gifts in Israel leads to welfare gains or deadweight losses. We also explored how the relationship type (family, social, workplace) affects the difference between the costs and values of gifts.
Expectant parents experience a variety of emotions, including joy, anticipation as well as anxiet... more Expectant parents experience a variety of emotions, including joy, anticipation as well as anxiety and fear related to the health of the fetus, the delivery and the newborn. These sources of uncertainty and stress render expectant mothers susceptible to the influence of popular beliefs. We design an experiment to evaluate the widespread Israeli belief that a baby's room should remain unfurnished until after the baby is born. We test the impact of this belief on the economic decisions of pregnant Jewish women in Israel. Our findings show that many pregnant women, especially in the second half of pregnancy, prefer to avoid challenging popular beliefs-even at a financial cost. The negative affective consequences of "tempting fate" lead to a preference for a small monetary amount over new furniture for the newborn. The strength of popular beliefs and its influence on individual choice vary in accordance with ethnicity and degree of religiosity. 1. Introduction 1.1. Overview Popular beliefs, rituals and magical practices are central to many cultures. These beliefs are sometimes called 'superstitions', stemming from the view that they are irrational, unfounded or vague beliefs. 1 Various thinkers have considered such beliefs to be attempts by human beings to understand and control the uncertainty in their world (
Souvenir purchases has emerged as an important area of research in tourism studies. We investigat... more Souvenir purchases has emerged as an important area of research in tourism studies. We investigate tourists' attachment to souvenirs based on religion, type, and place of purchase, and analyze the endowment effect. We asked 3325 Jewish and Christian tourists visiting Israel to estimate the price they would pay/accept for three types of souvenir: Jewish, Christian, and general souvenirs. Overall, we found an endowment effect toward most of the souvenirs. The results demonstrated that religion, type, and place of purchase affected the valuation of the items. The endowment effect was higher for the Jewish group than for their non-Jewish counterparts. These results demonstrate that tourists' perceptions of souvenirs are shaped not only by their utility, but also by their meaningfulness. Introduction Purchasing souvenirs is a common act, in which almost tourists participate, and which has received significant research attention in recent years (e.g. Haldrup, 2017; Kim & Littrell, 2001; Swanson & Timothy, 2012). Souvenirs are essentially transformational tools that reconnect travelers to thoughts, feelings, and experiences related to places they have visited. They play an important role in helping people accumulate and store memories related to travel. As such, buying souvenirs is more than merely a leisure activity. Rather, it is motivated by emotional and psychological factors (Haldrup, 2017; Shenhav-Keller (1993); Swanson & Timothy, 2012). Haldrup (2017) argued that purchasing souvenirs has a "magical effect" that mediates between the journey experience and the casual habit/routine of buying souvenirs. Souvenirs are a major source of income and play an important role in the development of the tourism industry. Despite this, the direct relationship between the souvenir industry and economic biases has received little coverage (Shackley, 2006). Since souvenirs are transformational objects, their acquisition is determined by more than their exchange price. Their spiritual meaning is one factor (Paraskevaidis & Andriotis, 2015) that can affect the value of a souvenir for a particular tourist. A religious memento may therefore have a higher value, as reflected in the price a tourist is willing to pay for it or sell it for, than a non-religious souvenir that is valued differently. This study uses economic concepts, and examines the presence (or absence) of the endowment effect in pricing of religious and non-religious souvenirs. The endowment effect represents the difference in price between the dollar amount one is willing to pay for a product (WTP) and the dollar amount one is willing to accept for the same product (WTA). Prior research found that regardless of its original economic value, possessing an item leads to a perceived increase in its value and, therefore, its WTA is higher than its WTP. In other words, a higher price is demanded to compensate for a loss of an object once the seller has possessed it. In the current study, we ask if this bias is also influenced by the religious significance of a memento, and the degree of its religious significance. The endowment effect expects tourists to feel more connected to holy objects than to other objects, and to request higher compensation to forgo these items. We also compared the endowment effect for items purchased as souvenirs during a trip to the
In recent years, we have witnessed a fundamental change in the way laypeople approach economic is... more In recent years, we have witnessed a fundamental change in the way laypeople approach economic issues—from a complete reliance on the financial system as the major source of investment wisdom to self-reliance and self-investments. The current paper examines how personality traits affect novice investors’ decisions regarding the scope and amount of risk they take when making investments. The results indicate that general subjective risk attitudes and social trust influence investment patterns, but not in the same manner. While risk and trust influence the individual’s willingness to take financial risks and invest in risky instruments, trust also affects investment diversification. In contrast to former studies, in this paper we define the term “trust” using two separate measurements—trust in the world versus self-trust. We made this differentiation by applying Schwartz’s value model. We found that subjects who had faith in others took more financial risks, tending to concentrate their funds in these instruments. The opposite pattern was revealed in the behavior of self-trusting investors. These subjects not only invested in less risky instruments, they also divided their capital among several assets. The results suggest that psychological traits influence investment patterns in different manners, which requires a closer examination.
This paper investigates the role of physical attractiveness in retail managers' decisions about h... more This paper investigates the role of physical attractiveness in retail managers' decisions about hiring salespeople. Using data on attractiveness and the potential employment qualifications of 30 candidates, we found that retail managers prefer to hire candidates who are more physically attractive. This beauty premium can be explained by our findings on the positive correlation between candidates' attractiveness and the perceived presence of traits essential for becoming a successful salesperson, such as charisma, kindness and persuasiveness. We also found that beauty plays a more important role for female candidates, from the earliest stage of the hiring process. No difference was found between the beauty premiums in the decisions of male and female retail managers. When this study's results are coupled with results from previous studies demonstrating that an employee's attractiveness has been found to influence both performance and behaviors of customers and managers, the managerial relevance of the attractiveness effect becomes apparent. Based on our findings, we recommend that retail managers remain vigilant about the potential for intentional or unintentional biases based on physical appearance when hiring employees.
This research focuses on the role of gender and physical attractiveness in judging severity of un... more This research focuses on the role of gender and physical attractiveness in judging severity of unethical workplace behavior. Scenarios with possible ethical dilemmas (commonly referred to as “gray areas” of behavior) were displayed to 4,483 subjects. Our findings show that “gray area” behavior was evaluated as more ethical if performed by male employees compared with women. We also found that attractiveness moderated the connection between gender and tolerance toward unethical work behavior. People judge more severely the same unethical action by plain-looking employees rather than attractive-looking employees, in accordance with the attractiveness-leniency effect—but only for women perpetrators. The physical attributes of men were not found to be relevant. We explore a number of explanations for this discrimination based on Expectation States Theory and Social Role Theory. JEL CLASSIFICATION: C91; J71.
In the current study, we examine why peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms play only a minor role ... more In the current study, we examine why peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms play only a minor role in the finance industry in Israel, compared to the traditional banking system. We conducted two studies and attempted to discover if a discrepancy exists between the lenders' preferences and the platforms’ incentives. In the first study, we conducted a conjoint analysis to examine the impact of lenders' decisions to invest through P2P platforms. The second study examines the factors in which platforms use to determine the lending interest rate for loans. We found that although lenders wish to decrease their risk and guarantee their investment, P2P companies encourage riskier borrowers. This contradiction between the priorities of the lenders and those of the platforms may explain why the non-users consider P2P lending to be a high risk. We offer several suggestions to increase the attractiveness of the Fintech and lending platforms industry. Supplementary Information The online v...
Proceedings of the 40th International Academic Conference, Stockholm, 2018
One of the most challenging areas for employees and managers is dealing with shades of gray relat... more One of the most challenging areas for employees and managers is dealing with shades of gray related to ethical behaviors. The ability to evaluate unethical behavior can differ from person to person and is vulnerable to the influences of unrelated attributions. In the current study, we investigated the role of physical attractiveness and gender in judging severity of unethical workplace behavior. Scenarios with unethical behavioral dilemmas were displayed to 4,602 subjects in different versions accompanied with images. Our findings show that "gray area" behavior was evaluated with more severity if conducted by a plain-looking employee than an attractive one. When comparing genders, the same action was perceived as more ethical if performed by male employees. We explore a number of explanations for this discrimination based on the psychological literature.
Abstract Research across various disciplines has addressed personality traits that can account fo... more Abstract Research across various disciplines has addressed personality traits that can account for dishonest behavior. This study examines the role of narcissism, a multifaceted personality construct typified by an inflated self-view, in the labor market as an influence on resume deception and counterproductive work behavior. Our findings confirmed the hypotheses and showed that job applicants with higher narcissism scores reported greater fabrication, embellishment, and omission of relevant information on their resumes. We also found that only the maladaptive aspects of narcissism were correlated with counterproductive work behavior. This finding show that narcissists may also offer positive value to organizations, related to their natural inclination toward leadership and positions of power. Knowing which personality traits are linked with dishonesty in the labor market allows for more effective applicant screening and informed decision making in the selection process.
PurposeLabor market studies show that job applicants are naturally inclined to embellish or omit ... more PurposeLabor market studies show that job applicants are naturally inclined to embellish or omit information on their resumes, to gain advantage over other applicants. Religiosity can reveal much about an individual's sense of right and wrong and it has importance as a social force with a foundational role in ethical development. The study’s objective is to clarify the relationship between personal religiosity and the intentional deceitful presentation of information on resumes, as well as the judgment of situations with ethical content.Design/methodology/approachThe study is comprised of Jewish adult participants that submitted a resume in search of a job in the past 30 weeks in Israel. The questionnaire included questions regarding resume fraud, tolerance towards unethical and illegal behaviors and demographic and occupational questions.FindingsThe authors' results indicate that religious status may be a predictor of resume deception. Religious applicants reported more rig...
Proceedings of the 48th International Academic Conference, Copenhagen, 2019
For macro-economists, the importance of holiday gift-giving is the effect of spending on the macr... more For macro-economists, the importance of holiday gift-giving is the effect of spending on the macro economy. However, for micro-economists, gift-giving has a different important aspect. The choices of purchasing are made by someone other than the recipient, the final consumer. Recipients sometimes receive gifts they do not like because the giver does not really know with any degree of accuracy the recipients' preferences. Such gifts are welfare reducing (deadweight loss) compared to giving cash. The cost of the gift is higher than its value to the recipient. In this study, we examine whether purchasing holiday gifts in Israel leads to welfare gains or deadweight losses. We also explored how the relationship type (family, social, workplace) affects the difference between the costs and values of gifts.
Expectant parents experience a variety of emotions, including joy, anticipation as well as anxiet... more Expectant parents experience a variety of emotions, including joy, anticipation as well as anxiety and fear related to the health of the fetus, the delivery and the newborn. These sources of uncertainty and stress render expectant mothers susceptible to the influence of popular beliefs. We design an experiment to evaluate the widespread Israeli belief that a baby's room should remain unfurnished until after the baby is born. We test the impact of this belief on the economic decisions of pregnant Jewish women in Israel. Our findings show that many pregnant women, especially in the second half of pregnancy, prefer to avoid challenging popular beliefs-even at a financial cost. The negative affective consequences of "tempting fate" lead to a preference for a small monetary amount over new furniture for the newborn. The strength of popular beliefs and its influence on individual choice vary in accordance with ethnicity and degree of religiosity. 1. Introduction 1.1. Overview Popular beliefs, rituals and magical practices are central to many cultures. These beliefs are sometimes called 'superstitions', stemming from the view that they are irrational, unfounded or vague beliefs. 1 Various thinkers have considered such beliefs to be attempts by human beings to understand and control the uncertainty in their world (
Souvenir purchases has emerged as an important area of research in tourism studies. We investigat... more Souvenir purchases has emerged as an important area of research in tourism studies. We investigate tourists' attachment to souvenirs based on religion, type, and place of purchase, and analyze the endowment effect. We asked 3325 Jewish and Christian tourists visiting Israel to estimate the price they would pay/accept for three types of souvenir: Jewish, Christian, and general souvenirs. Overall, we found an endowment effect toward most of the souvenirs. The results demonstrated that religion, type, and place of purchase affected the valuation of the items. The endowment effect was higher for the Jewish group than for their non-Jewish counterparts. These results demonstrate that tourists' perceptions of souvenirs are shaped not only by their utility, but also by their meaningfulness. Introduction Purchasing souvenirs is a common act, in which almost tourists participate, and which has received significant research attention in recent years (e.g. Haldrup, 2017; Kim & Littrell, 2001; Swanson & Timothy, 2012). Souvenirs are essentially transformational tools that reconnect travelers to thoughts, feelings, and experiences related to places they have visited. They play an important role in helping people accumulate and store memories related to travel. As such, buying souvenirs is more than merely a leisure activity. Rather, it is motivated by emotional and psychological factors (Haldrup, 2017; Shenhav-Keller (1993); Swanson & Timothy, 2012). Haldrup (2017) argued that purchasing souvenirs has a "magical effect" that mediates between the journey experience and the casual habit/routine of buying souvenirs. Souvenirs are a major source of income and play an important role in the development of the tourism industry. Despite this, the direct relationship between the souvenir industry and economic biases has received little coverage (Shackley, 2006). Since souvenirs are transformational objects, their acquisition is determined by more than their exchange price. Their spiritual meaning is one factor (Paraskevaidis & Andriotis, 2015) that can affect the value of a souvenir for a particular tourist. A religious memento may therefore have a higher value, as reflected in the price a tourist is willing to pay for it or sell it for, than a non-religious souvenir that is valued differently. This study uses economic concepts, and examines the presence (or absence) of the endowment effect in pricing of religious and non-religious souvenirs. The endowment effect represents the difference in price between the dollar amount one is willing to pay for a product (WTP) and the dollar amount one is willing to accept for the same product (WTA). Prior research found that regardless of its original economic value, possessing an item leads to a perceived increase in its value and, therefore, its WTA is higher than its WTP. In other words, a higher price is demanded to compensate for a loss of an object once the seller has possessed it. In the current study, we ask if this bias is also influenced by the religious significance of a memento, and the degree of its religious significance. The endowment effect expects tourists to feel more connected to holy objects than to other objects, and to request higher compensation to forgo these items. We also compared the endowment effect for items purchased as souvenirs during a trip to the
In recent years, we have witnessed a fundamental change in the way laypeople approach economic is... more In recent years, we have witnessed a fundamental change in the way laypeople approach economic issues—from a complete reliance on the financial system as the major source of investment wisdom to self-reliance and self-investments. The current paper examines how personality traits affect novice investors’ decisions regarding the scope and amount of risk they take when making investments. The results indicate that general subjective risk attitudes and social trust influence investment patterns, but not in the same manner. While risk and trust influence the individual’s willingness to take financial risks and invest in risky instruments, trust also affects investment diversification. In contrast to former studies, in this paper we define the term “trust” using two separate measurements—trust in the world versus self-trust. We made this differentiation by applying Schwartz’s value model. We found that subjects who had faith in others took more financial risks, tending to concentrate their funds in these instruments. The opposite pattern was revealed in the behavior of self-trusting investors. These subjects not only invested in less risky instruments, they also divided their capital among several assets. The results suggest that psychological traits influence investment patterns in different manners, which requires a closer examination.
This paper investigates the role of physical attractiveness in retail managers' decisions about h... more This paper investigates the role of physical attractiveness in retail managers' decisions about hiring salespeople. Using data on attractiveness and the potential employment qualifications of 30 candidates, we found that retail managers prefer to hire candidates who are more physically attractive. This beauty premium can be explained by our findings on the positive correlation between candidates' attractiveness and the perceived presence of traits essential for becoming a successful salesperson, such as charisma, kindness and persuasiveness. We also found that beauty plays a more important role for female candidates, from the earliest stage of the hiring process. No difference was found between the beauty premiums in the decisions of male and female retail managers. When this study's results are coupled with results from previous studies demonstrating that an employee's attractiveness has been found to influence both performance and behaviors of customers and managers, the managerial relevance of the attractiveness effect becomes apparent. Based on our findings, we recommend that retail managers remain vigilant about the potential for intentional or unintentional biases based on physical appearance when hiring employees.
This research focuses on the role of gender and physical attractiveness in judging severity of un... more This research focuses on the role of gender and physical attractiveness in judging severity of unethical workplace behavior. Scenarios with possible ethical dilemmas (commonly referred to as “gray areas” of behavior) were displayed to 4,483 subjects. Our findings show that “gray area” behavior was evaluated as more ethical if performed by male employees compared with women. We also found that attractiveness moderated the connection between gender and tolerance toward unethical work behavior. People judge more severely the same unethical action by plain-looking employees rather than attractive-looking employees, in accordance with the attractiveness-leniency effect—but only for women perpetrators. The physical attributes of men were not found to be relevant. We explore a number of explanations for this discrimination based on Expectation States Theory and Social Role Theory. JEL CLASSIFICATION: C91; J71.
In the current study, we examine why peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms play only a minor role ... more In the current study, we examine why peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms play only a minor role in the finance industry in Israel, compared to the traditional banking system. We conducted two studies and attempted to discover if a discrepancy exists between the lenders' preferences and the platforms’ incentives. In the first study, we conducted a conjoint analysis to examine the impact of lenders' decisions to invest through P2P platforms. The second study examines the factors in which platforms use to determine the lending interest rate for loans. We found that although lenders wish to decrease their risk and guarantee their investment, P2P companies encourage riskier borrowers. This contradiction between the priorities of the lenders and those of the platforms may explain why the non-users consider P2P lending to be a high risk. We offer several suggestions to increase the attractiveness of the Fintech and lending platforms industry. Supplementary Information The online v...
Proceedings of the 40th International Academic Conference, Stockholm, 2018
One of the most challenging areas for employees and managers is dealing with shades of gray relat... more One of the most challenging areas for employees and managers is dealing with shades of gray related to ethical behaviors. The ability to evaluate unethical behavior can differ from person to person and is vulnerable to the influences of unrelated attributions. In the current study, we investigated the role of physical attractiveness and gender in judging severity of unethical workplace behavior. Scenarios with unethical behavioral dilemmas were displayed to 4,602 subjects in different versions accompanied with images. Our findings show that "gray area" behavior was evaluated with more severity if conducted by a plain-looking employee than an attractive one. When comparing genders, the same action was perceived as more ethical if performed by male employees. We explore a number of explanations for this discrimination based on the psychological literature.
Abstract Research across various disciplines has addressed personality traits that can account fo... more Abstract Research across various disciplines has addressed personality traits that can account for dishonest behavior. This study examines the role of narcissism, a multifaceted personality construct typified by an inflated self-view, in the labor market as an influence on resume deception and counterproductive work behavior. Our findings confirmed the hypotheses and showed that job applicants with higher narcissism scores reported greater fabrication, embellishment, and omission of relevant information on their resumes. We also found that only the maladaptive aspects of narcissism were correlated with counterproductive work behavior. This finding show that narcissists may also offer positive value to organizations, related to their natural inclination toward leadership and positions of power. Knowing which personality traits are linked with dishonesty in the labor market allows for more effective applicant screening and informed decision making in the selection process.
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Papers by Zeev Shtudiner