C.V.

Consumer Psych

Nobel Prize inspired repost: Emotional Accounting

Inspired by Richard Thaler’s Nobel Prize in Economics, here are a couple of old posts about emotional accounting–research that complements his work on mental accounting: Emotional Accounting Part 1 (complementing mental accounting): My good friend Jonathan Levav and I published a paper in the Journal of Marketing Research that examines how people’s

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Which of these talks do you prefer?

I am developing more applied professional talks that translate humor research into actionable takeaways for a business audience. Which of you these two talks would you be more interested in hearing? What’s so Funny about Business: Six Ways that Humor Benefits Your Career. Work does not have to be the

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More evidence that things don’t go viral

I don’t think that things go viral (aside from viruses). Scott Galloway probably agrees. Check the first minute of this video that talks about “pay-to-play” on YouTube. (His L2inc video series is excellent, btw). In sum: if you want millions of views, pay for it with advertising.

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Repost: Things don’t go viral (except viruses)

You have heard the stories about viral videos that receive millions of views. One part of those stories, however, is not true. Things don’t go viral the way that viruses that do. .…………………………..Not the way it happens Academics, business people, and the man on the street commonly believe that interesting

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I take it back.

After my last sabbatical, I reported in a blog post what might be my post-Humor Code life might look like. I am now taking back one of the plans that I presented in the report: 3) Draw on the benign violation theory and related behavioral science research to examine how we

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Another Benign Violation: Roast Me

Being publicly degraded is distressing.  However, a popular subreddit on Reddit, /r/roastme, is populated by people asking to get roasted by  strangers. The results are… pretty funny. actually: The Benign Violation Theory helps explain what makes this process so funny. Humor arises when something is wrong yet okay, threatening yet safe,

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Repost: Humor and haunted houses

Are you visiting a haunted house in the couple weeks? I’ve observed two kinds of comedy associated with haunted houses: You observe people being scared and then laugh about it. You laugh at people’s reactions to being scared. Both seem to be happening here. Check out more here. Alf Lamont,

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SOLO | Sarah Stinson and Lawrence Williams | Value Yourself
Podcast - Solo

Valuing Yourself (Again)

  How do you value yourself? This fan-favorite episode is being re-released for new listeners (or a reminder for seasoned listeners)! Peter McGraw welcomes Sarah

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Podcast - I'm Not Joking

Curtain Call

  Welcome to the final episode of I’M NOT JOKING. Comedian JD Lopez returns from Episode 1 to debrief and reflect on Peter’s experience building

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