Matchmaking Promotes Happiness

Four studies document and explore the psychology underlying people's proclivity to connect people to each other—to play "matchmaker." First, Study 1 shows that chronic matchmaking is associated with higher well-being. Studies 2 and 3 show that matching others on the basis of how well they will get along leads to a greater increase in happiness and is more intrinsically rewarding than other tasks (e.g., deciding which people would not get along). Study 4 investigates a moderator of the rewarding nature of matchmaking: the type of connection. We show that bridging ties are relatively more attractive than bonding ties: the more unlikely the match, the more rewarding it is. Taken together, these studies provide correlational and causal evidence for the role of matchmaking in promoting happiness

Contingent Match Incentives Increase Donations

We propose a new means by which non-profits can induce donors to give today and commit to giving in the future: contingent match incentives, in which matching is made contingent on the percentage of others who give (e.g., "if X% of others give, we will match all donations"). A field experiment shows that a 75% contingent match (where matches "kick in" only if 75% of others donate) is most effective in increasing commitment to recurring donations. An online experiment reveals that the 75% contingent match drives commitment to recurring donations because it simultaneously provides social proof yet offers a low enough target that it remains plausible that the match will occur. A final online experiment demonstrates that the effectiveness of the 75% contingent match extends to one-time donations. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications of contingent matches for managers and academics

Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior

In knowledge-intensive settings such as product or software development, fluid teams of individuals with different sets of experience are tasked with projects that are critical to the success of their organizations. Although building teams from individuals with diverse prior experience is increasingly necessary, prior work examining the relationship between experience and performance fails to find a consistent effect of diversity in experience on performance. The problem is that diversity in experience improves a team's information processing capacity and knowledge base, but also creates coordination challenges. We hypothesize that team familiarity - team members' prior experience working with one another - is one mechanism that helps teams leverage the benefits of diversity in team member experience by alleviating coordination problems that diversity creates. We use detailed project- and individual-level data from an Indian software services firm to examine the effects of team familiarity and diversity in experience on performance for software development projects. We find the interaction of team familiarity and diversity in experience has a complementary effect on a project being delivered on time and on budget. In team familiarity, we identify one mechanism for capturing the performance benefits of diversity in experience and provide insight into how the management of experience accumulation affects team performance.Diversity, Experience, Knowledge, Software, Team Familiarity

Prosocial Bonuses Increase Employee Satisfaction and Team Performance

In three field studies, we explore the impact of providing employees and teammates with prosocial bonuses, a novel type ofbonus spent on others rather than on oneself. In Experiment 1, we show that prosocial bonuses in the form of donations tocharity lead to happier and more satisfied employees at an Australian bank. In Experiments 2a and 2b, we show thatprosocial bonuses in the form of expenditures on teammates lead to better performance in both sports teams in Canadaand pharmaceutical sales teams in Belgium. These results suggest that a minor adjustment to employee bonuses – shifting the focus from the self to others – can produce measurable benefits for employees and organizations

On Being the "Tipping Point": Threshold Incentives Motivate Behavior

In a series of social movements, we document that being the "tipping" person whose contributions (e.g., charitable giving, blood donations) at the critical moment creates a turning point is very motivating. We show that social motivation exceeds financial rewards and is driven by a sense of responsibility toward fellow participants

Employee demographics (Experiment 1).

<p>Employee demographics (Experiment 1).</p

Change in sports and sales team performance between Time 1 and Time 2 as a function of condition (Experiments 2a and 2b).

<p>Change in sports and sales team performance between Time 1 and Time 2 as a function of condition (Experiments 2a and 2b).</p