Research Website of
Eugen Dimant
ABOUT ME
I am an Associate Professor of Practice in Behavioral & Decision Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. I'm also a fellow in the Behavioral and Decision Sciences Program, the Center for Social Norms and Behavioral Dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania, an external fellow of the Centre for Decision Research & Experimental Economics (CeDEx) at the University of Nottingham & a Network Fellow at CESifo, Munich.
My research interests center on experimental behavioral economics with a particular focus on behavioral ethics, crime, and corruption. My most recent work has examined the role of social norms and nudges in affecting self-serving belief distortions and the contagion of pro- and anti-social behavior among individuals and groups. As a secondary interest, I am also involved in empirical research examining the relationships between corruption, terrorism, and migration. My Google Scholar page provides a good overview.
Prior to my current position, I was a Lab Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University's (under Lawrence Lessig), as well as an (affiliated) visiting researcher at
Stanford University's Hoover Institution (Invitation: Russel Berman),
Yale University's Human Cooperation Lab (Invitation: David Rand),
George Mason University's Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (Invitation: Dan Houser),
and the Center and Laboratory for Behavioral Operations and Economics (LBOE) at the University of Texas at Dallas (Invitation: Gary Bolton)
My most recent CV can be found here.
RESEARCH NEWS
April 2022:
Shaul Shalvi (UvA) and I have a new paper out in Current Opinion in Psychology on 'Meta-Nudging Honesty: Past, Present, and Future of the Research Frontier'. You can find the paper here.
Our paper on 'Politicizing Mask-Wearing: Predicting the Success of Behavioral Interventions Among Republicans and Democrats in the U.S.' (joint with M. Gelfand, A. Dreber, E. Clemente and D. Pieper -- in collaboration with the Behavior Change for Good Initiative (BCFG), the Behavioral Insights Team (BIT), the Center for Advanced Hindsight (CAH), and ideas42) is now out in Nature Scientific Reports & can be downloaded here.
December 2021:
Our paper on 'Social Proximity and the Erosion of Norm Compliance' (joint with C. Bicchieri, S. Gächter and D. Nosenzo) is now out in Games and Economic Behavior. The paper can be downloaded here.
October 2021:
We have released two companion papers on nudging mask-wearing behavior of Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. In more detail:
Project examines the research question: can theoretically informed interventions to nudge people into wearing masks more? Existing political polarization around that topic would suggest that it's challenging & this is indeed what we find in a representative sample. The working paper can be downloaded here.
Project examines the research question: can practitioners, academics, and/or laypeople predict the effectiveness of the interventions tested in Project 1? We ran this study in collaboration with various behavioral science units (BIT, ideas42, Behavior Change for Good Initiative, Center for Advanced Hindsight). We find that practitioners and academics indeed showcase better prediction abilities. The working paper can be downloaded here.
September 2021:
New working paper out entitled "Beyond Belief: Social Motives for Sharing Conspiracy Theories" (joint with Ren & Schweitzer). There we examine the social dimension and dynamics of misinformation sharing. The paper can be downloaded here.
July 2021:
New paper out in the Journal of Risk & Uncertainty titled: "Efficient Institutions and Effective Deterrence: On Timing and Uncertainty of Formal Sanctions" (joint with J. Buckenmaier, A.-C. Posten and U. Schmidt). This paper presents the first controlled test of the 'celerity' mechanism (testing impact of swiftness of punishment on deviance), which complements Becker's severity and certainty mechanism. The paper can be downloaded here.
May 2021:
New paper forthcoming in Economics Letters: The Experience is (Not) Everything: Sequential Outcomes and Social Decision-Making (with J. Buckenmaier). It can be downloaded here.
April 2021:
New paper forthcoming in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization: Deviant or Wrong? The Effects of Norm Information on the Efficacy of Punishment (with C. Bicchieri & E. Xiao). The paper can be downloaded here.
New paper forthcoming in Public Choice: Understanding Cross-Cultural Differences in Peer Reporting Practices: Evidence from Tax Evasion Games in Moldova & France (with R. Romaniuc, D. Dubois, A. Lupusor & V. Prohnitchi) . The working paper can be downloaded here.
February 2021:
New paper forthcoming in the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty: Efficient Institutions & Effective Deterrence: On Timing and Uncertainty of Punishment (with J. Buckenmaier, A.-C. Posten & U. Schmidt). The working paper can be downloaded here.