Essay 1: Translation Errors in the Aggregation of Consumer Recommendations There has been a substantial increase of websites providing consumers with recommendations about products and services. These recommendations are usually presented in the form of verbal reviews and numerical ratings. It...

We study the impact of social reference points (SRPs) on decisions under uncertainty. Participants in an online experiment observed the earnings of a matched peer, which was either a high or low amount of money (SRP condition). Subsequently, they made decisions under different degrees of...

Focusing illusion describes how, when making choices, people may put disproportionate attention on certain attributes of the options and hence, causing those options to be overvalued. For instance, in deciding whether or not to take out a loan, people may focus more on getting the loan than on...