Research: How Risky Behavior Spreads

Lessons from the pre-vaccine days of the pandemic.

by

Jennifer M. Logg

and

Catherine H. Tinsley

by

Jennifer M. Logg

and

Catherine H. Tinsley

February 17, 2023

Jenae Escobar/Getty Images

Summary.

How does risky behavior spread? There are two theories: one involving social cues and the other involving trial-and-error. Covid-19 offered a chance to study this phenomenon and found evidence for both. In particular, the authors’ research documents a phenomenon of “risk creep,” where lucky near-misses (not getting Covid) encourage people to take riskier behavior in the future.

The challenge in some organizations is not enough risk-taking: Employees are too cautious and not willing to try new things even when they’d be beneficial, on average, for the organization. In other organizations, the problem is excessive risk-taking: Risky behavior spreads through an organization until something goes wrong. From poor financial decision-making to unethical behavior, excessive risk-taking can sink a company.

JL

Jennifer M. Logg is an Assistant Professor of Management at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Prior to joining Georgetown, she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Harvard University. She received her Ph.D. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. Her primary research uses experiments to test how people respond to the increasing prevalence of information produced by algorithms. Her program of research examines how people expect algorithmic and human judgment to differ (research she calls, Theory of Machine, a twist on the classic “theory of mind”).
CT

Catherine H. Tinsley is the Raffini Term Professor and Chair of the Management Area at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Tinsley is an expert on gender intelligent leadership, decision making under risk and uncertainty, negotiations, and conflict resolution. She participated in The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland and partnered with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to study a decade of gender in the C-suite. Her work on decision making has been sponsored by NASA, NSF, and DHS.

Research: How Risky Behavior Spreads

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