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Michael I. Norton

Assistant Professor of Business Administration

Contact (617) 496-4593
Overview Biography Publications & Course Materials Current Research Areas of Interest

Published Papers

Martin, Jolie M., and Michael I. Norton. "Shaping Online Consumer Choice by Partitioning the Web." Psychology and Marketing 26, no. 10 (October 2009): 908–926. Abstract

This research explores how partitioning attributes in online search interfaces changes the valuations of those attributes-and impacts subsequent choice-such that attributes that are displayed as separate categories tend to receive greater decision weight than attributes grouped under umbrella categories. Across several choice domains-cars, dates, and hotels-we show that different attribute partitions impact the importance assigned to attributes (Studies 1 and 2), as well as consumer choices (Studies 3 and 4). We argue that these effects are due in part to users' willingness to use the implicit recommendations of interface designers to determine the importance of attributes, a willingness that extends to following explicit recommendations of online agents based on those attributes (Study 5).
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Ariely, Dan, and Michael I. Norton. "How Concepts Affect Consumption." Harvard Business Review 87, no. 6 (June 2009).

Norton, Michael I. "The IKEA Effect: When Labor Leads to Love." Harvard Business Review 87, no. 2 (February 2009): 30.

Ariely, Dan, and Michael I. Norton. "Conceptual Consumption." Annual Review of Psychology 60 (2009): 475-499.

Aknin, Lara B., Michael I. Norton, and Elizabeth W. Dunn. "From Wealth to Well-Being? Money Matters, but Less than People Think." Journal of Positive Psychology 4 (2009): 523––27. Abstract

While numerous studies have documented the modest (though reliable) link between household income and well-being, we examined the accuracy of laypeople's intuitions about this relationship by asking people from across the income spectrum to report their own happiness and to predict the happiness of others (Study 1) and themselves (Study 2) at different income levels. Data from two national surveys revealed that while laypeople's predictions were relatively accurate at higher levels of income, they greatly overestimated the impact of income on life satisfaction at lower income levels, expecting low household income to be coupled with very low life satisfaction. Thus, people may work hard to maintain or increase their income in part because they overestimate the hedonic costs of earning low levels of income.


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Mason, Malia, Rebecca Dyer, and Michael I. Norton. "Neural Mechanisms of Social Influence." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, no. 110 (2009): 152-159. Abstract

The present investigation explores the neural mechanisms underlying the impact of social influence on preferences. We socially tagged symbols as valued or not-by exposing participants to the preferences of their peers-and assessed subsequent brain activity during an incidental processing task in which participants viewed popular, unpopular, and novel symbols. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) differentiated between symbols that were and were not socially tagged-a possible index of normative influence-while aspects of the striatum (the caudate) differentiated between popular and unpopular symbols-a possible index of informational influence. These results suggest that integrating activity in these two brain regions may differentiate objects that have become valued as a result of social influence from those valued for non-social reasons.
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Morewedge, Carey K., and Michael I. Norton. "When Dreaming Is Believing: The (Motivated) Interpretation of Dreams." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 96, no. 2 (2009): 249-264.

Frost, Jeana H., Zoe Chance, Michael I. Norton, and Dan Ariely. "People Are Experience Goods: Improving Online Dating with Virtual Dates." Journal of Interactive Marketing 22, no. 1 (winter 2008): 51-62.

Mochon, Daniel, Michael I. Norton, and Dan Ariely. "Getting off the Hedonic Treadmill, One Step at a Time: The Impact of Regular Religious Practice and Exercise on Well-Being." Journal of Economic Psychology 29, no. 5 (November 2008): 632-642.

Sommers, Samuel R., and Michael I. Norton. "Race and Jury Selection: Psychological Perspectives on the Peremptory Challenge Debate." American Psychologist 63 (September 2008): 527-539.

Norton, Michael I., and Elizabeth W. Dunn. "Help Employees Give Away Some of That Bonus." HBS Centennial Issue. Harvard Business Review 86, nos. 7/8 (July - August 2008): 27.

Dunn, Elizabeth W., Lara B. Aknin, and Michael I. Norton. "Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness." Science 319 (March 2008): 1687-1688.

Norton, Michael I., Joseph A. Vandello, Andrew Biga, and John M. Darley. "Colorblindness and Diversity: Conflicting Goals in Decisions Influenced by Race." Social Cognition 26 (2008): 102-111.

Ariely, Dan, and Michael I. Norton. "How Actions Create—Not Just Reveal—Preferences." Trends in Cognitive Sciences 12, no. 1 (January 2008): 13-16.

Apfelbaum, Evan P., Kristin Pauker, Nalini Ambady, Samuel R. Sommers, and Michael I. Norton. "Learning (Not) to Talk About Race: When Older Children Underperform in Social Categorization." Developmental Psychology 44, no. 5 (2008).

Apfelbaum, Evan P., Samuel R. Sommers, and Michael I. Norton. "Seeing Race and Seeming Racist? Evaluating Strategic Colorblindness in Social Interaction." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95, no. 4 (2008): 918-932.

Norton, Michael I., Samuel R. Sommers, and Sara Brauner. "Bias in Jury Selection: Justifying Prohibited Peremptory Challenges." Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 20, no. 5 (December 2007): 467-479.

Ariely, Dan, and Michael I. Norton. "Psychology and Experimental Economics: A Gap in Abstraction." Current Directions in Psychological Science 16, no. 6 (December 2007): 336-339.

Sommers, Samuel R., and Michael I. Norton. "Race-Based Judgments, Race-Neutral Justifications: Experimental Examination of Peremptory Use and the Batson Challenge Procedure." Law and Human Behavior 31, no. 3 (June 2007): 261-273.

Cuddy, A.J.C., M. Rock, and M. I. Norton. "Aid in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: Inferences of Secondary Emotions and Intergroup Helping." Group Processes and Intergroup Relations 10 (January 2007): 107-118.

Norton, Michael I., Jeana H. Frost, and Dan Ariely. "Less is More: The Lure of Ambiguity, or Why Familiarity Breeds Contempt." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 92 (January 2007): 97-105.

Mason, Malia F., Michael I. Norton, Jack D. Van Horn, Daniel M. Wegner, Scott D. Grafton, and C. Neil Macrae. "Wandering Minds: The Default Network and Stimulus-Independent Thought." Science 315 (January 2007): 393-395.

Norton, Michael I., Samuel R. Sommers, Joseph A. Vandello, and John M. Darley. "Mixed Motives and Racial Bias: The Impact of Legitimate and Illegitimate Criteria on Decision-making." Psychology, Public Policy, and Law 12, no. 1 (February 2006): 36-55.

Norton, Michael I., Samuel R. Sommers, Evan P. Apfelbaum, Natassia Pura, and Dan Ariely. "Color Blindness and Interracial Interaction: Playing the Political Correctness Game." Psychological Science 17, no. 11 (2006): 949-953.

Sommers, Samuel R., and Michael I. Norton. "Lay Theories about Racists: What Constitutes Racism (and What Doesn’t)." Group Processes and Intergroup Relations 9, no. 1 (January 2006): 117-138.

Nelson, Leif D., and Michael I. Norton. "From Student to Superhero: Situational Primes Shape Future Helping." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 41, no. 4 (July 2005): 423-430.

Cuddy, A.J.C., M. I. Norton, and S. T. Fiske. "This Old Stereotype: The Stubbornness and Pervasiveness of the Elderly Stereotype." Journal of Social Issues 61, no. 2 (June 2005): 267-285.

Norton, Michael I., Joseph A. Vandello, and John M. Darley. "Casuistry and Social Category Bias." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 87 (December 2004 ): 817-831.

Norton, Michael I., Joan M. DiMicco, Ron Caneel, and Dan Ariely. "AntiGroupWare and Second Messenger: Simple Systems for Improving (and Eliminating) Meetings." BT Technology Journal 22, no. 4 (October 2004): 83-88.

Norton, Michael I., and George R. Goethals. "Spin (and Pitch) Doctors: Campaign Strategies in Televised Political Debates." Political Behavior 26, no. 3 (September 2004): 227-248.

Monin, Benoit, Michael I. Norton, Joel Cooper, and Michael A. Hogg. "Reacting to an Assumed Situation vs. Conforming to an Assumed Reaction: The Role of Perceived Speaker Attitude in Vicarious Dissonance." Group Processes and Intergroup Relations 7, no. 3 (July 2004): 207-220.

Norton, Michael I., Benoit Monin, Joel Cooper, and Michael A. Hogg. "Vicarious Dissonance: Attitude Change from the Inconsistency of Others." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 85, no. 1 (July 2003): 47-62.

Monin, Benoit, and Michael I. Norton. "Perceptions of a Fluid Consensus: Uniqueness Bias, False Consensus, False Polarization and Pluralistic Ignorance in a Water Conservation Crisis." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29, no. 5 (May 2003): 559-567.

Fein, Steven, Seth J. Morgan, Michael I. Norton, and Samuel R. Sommers. "Hype and Suspicion: The Effects of Pretrial Publicity, Race, and Suspicion on Jurors' Verdicts." Journal of Social Issues 53 (fall 1997): 487-502.

Book Chapters

Anik, L., L. B. Aknin, M. I. Norton and E. W. Dunn. "Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-interested Charitable Behavior." In Experimental Approaches to the Study of Charitable Giving, edited by D. M. Oppenheimer and C. Y. Olivola, in press.

Chance, Zoe and Michael I. Norton. "I Read Playboy for the Articles: Justifying and Rationalizing Questionable Preferences." In The Interplay of Truth and Deception, edited by M. S. McGlone and M. L. Knapp. Routledge, 2008.

Other Papers

Cuddy, Amy J.C., Susan Crotty, Jihye Chong, and Michael I. Norton. "Men as cultural ideals: How culture shapes gender stereotypes."

Chance, Zoe, and Michael I. Norton. "'I read Playboy for the Articles': Justifying and Rationalizing Questionable Preferences." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-018, September 2009.

Anik, Lalin, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton, and Elizabeth W. Dunn. "Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-012, August 2009. Abstract

While lay intuitions and pop psychology suggest that helping others leads to higher levels of happiness, the existing evidence only weakly supports this causal claim: Research in psychology, economics, and neuroscience exploring the benefits of charitable giving has been largely correlational, leaving open the question of whether giving causes greater happiness. In this chapter, we have two primary aims. First, we review the evidence linking charitable behavior and happiness.  We present research from a variety of samples (adults, children and primates) and methods (correlational and experimental) demonstrating that happier people give more, that giving indeed causes increased happiness, and that these two relationships may operate in a circular fashion. Second, we consider whether advertising these benefits of charitable giving - asking people to give in order to be happy - may have the perverse consequence of decreasing charitable giving, crowding out intrinsic motivations to give by corrupting a purely social act with economic considerations. 


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Rogers, Todd, and Michael I. Norton. "Conversational Blindness: Answering the Wrong Question the Right Way." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-048, September 2008. Abstract

What happens when people try to "dodge" a question they would rather not answer by answering a different question? Two experiments demonstrated conversational blindness--listeners' surprising failure to notice such dodges--and explored the interpersonal consequences of this phenomenon. Listeners viewed successful question-dodgers as positively as speakers who actually answered the question they are asked, but were not blind to all efforts to dodge: They both noticed--and punished--particularly egregious attempts (Study 1).  More troublingly, listeners preferred speakers who answered the wrong question well over those who answered the right question poorly (Study 2).


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HBS Course Materials

Moon, Youngme E., Michael I. Norton, and David Chen. "(PRODUCT) RED (A)." Harvard Business School Case 509-013.

Moon, Youngme E., Michael I. Norton, and David Chen. "(PRODUCT) RED (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 509-014.

Norton, Michael I., and Youngme E. Moon. "(PRODUCT) RED (TN) (A) and (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 509-054.

Moon, Youngme E., and Michael I. Norton. "(PRODUCT) RED Video (A) & (B)." Harvard Business School Video Supplements 509-724.

Norton, Michael I., Julian Villanueva, and Luc Wathieu. "elBulli: The Taste of Innovation." Harvard Business School Case 509-015.

Norton, Michael I., Julian Villanueva, and Luc Wathieu. "elBulli: The Taste of Innovation (TN)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 509-055.

Steenburgh, Thomas J., and Michael I. Norton. "Pitch Yourself!" Harvard Business School Exercise 508-039.

Ofek, Elie, Thomas J. Steenburgh, Michael I. Norton, and Kerry Herman. "RKS Guitars." Harvard Business School Case 507-003.

Norton, Michael I., and Thomas J. Steenburgh. "Sell Yourself!" Harvard Business School Exercise 507-045.

Steenburgh, Thomas J., and Michael I. Norton. "Sell Yourself! (TN)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 507-069.