Shoham Choshen-Hillel is an Associate Professor at the Organizational Behavior Department in the Hebrew University Business School; and a member of the Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality at the Hebrew University. She is an associate editor in Management Science.
Prof. Choshen-Hillel studies decision-making processes in social contexts and in organizations. Her research addresses questions such as when do decision makers react negatively to others’ better outcomes, and when do they endorse them? Why would concern with reputation lead employees to lie to their manager, even though they don’t gain any material benefit therefrom? And how can we help decision makers use others’ wisdom more effectively? Choshen-Hillel identifies situational factors that lead us to endorse more efficient and prosocial decisions, despite competing psychological motivations.
Prof. Choshen-Hillel earned her PhD in social psychology in 2014 from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2013-2015, she was a Rothschild postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Decision Research at University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. In 2022-2023 she was a visiting scholar at Booth School of Business, the University of Chicago.
Choshen-Hillel holds an MA summa cum laude (valedictorian) in social psychology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She earned her BA summa cum laude in psychology in Hebrew University’s Amirim honors program.
Her research has been published in: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Management Science, Psychological Science, PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, Harvard Business Review, Psychology Inquiry, Judgment and Decision Making, Medical Education, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making and Pediatric Pulmonology.
Prof Choshen-Hillel won the Abe Gray Prize for Excellence in Research, and has been awarded several research grants including the ISF, BSF, the Joy Ventures Academic Grant, Barak Center for Interdisciplinary Law, German-Israeli Foundation (GIF), and the Booth School of Business Social Enterprise Initiative Award. Her work has been cited in Haaretz, Forbes, CNN, The Marker, The Huffington Post, USA Today, the Jerusalem Post, YNET, Calcalist, Psychology Today, and Galileo Science Journal.
Prof. Choshen-Hillel is an associate editor at Management Science, and reviews for numerous journals and grants.
She teaches The Art and Science of Negotiation; Decision Making: Intuition, Strategy, and in between; Negotiation: Theory and Practice; and Social Decision Making: Fairness, Generosity, and Ethics.
- Research Summary
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Choshen-Hillel’s research investigates social aspects of decision making. It demonstrates that our preferences and behavior are shaped not only by our own interests, but by potential outcomes for others, as well as by others’ views and expected reactions. Her main avenues of research investigate (i) resource allocation decisions and how they are affected by perceptions of fairness and by reputation, (ii) decisions made in the face of conflicting moral principles, and (iii) advice-based decision making and wisdom of the crowd. Her work contributes theoretically to the fields of social psychology, judgment and decision making, organizational psychology, and behavioral economics. Her studies use experimental – often lab-based – methodological approaches. They have managerial and organizational implications, proposing interventions and policies that can be leveraged to improve decision-making processes and organizational welfare.
- Publications
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Choshen-Hillel, S., & Gileles-Hillel, A. (in press). A wake-up call: Time to raise awareness to physicians’ fatigue. Medical Education.
Winet, Y., Tu, Y., Choshen-Hillel, S., & Fishbach, A. (in press). Social exploration: When people deviate from options explored by others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Kaditis, A. G., Ohler, A., Gileles-Hillel, A., Choshen-Hillel, S., Gozal, D., Bruni, O., Aydinoz, S., Cortese. R., & Kheirandish-Gozal, L. (in press). Effects of the COVID‐19 lockdown on sleep duration in children and adolescents: A survey across different continentsPediatric Pulmonology.
Barneron, M., Choshen-Hillel, S., & Yaniv, I. (2021). Reaping a benefit at the expense of multiple others: How are the losses of others counted? Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 164, 136–146.
Choshen-Hillel, S., Ishqer, A., Mahameed, F., Reiter, J., Gozal, D., Gileles-Hillel, A., & Berger, I. (2021). Acute and chronic sleep deprivation in residents: Cognition and stress biomarkers. Medical Education, 55,174–184.
Mandelkorn, U., Genzer, S., Choshen-Hillel, S., Reiter, J., Cruz, M. M., Hochner, H., Kheirandish-Gozal, L., Gozal, D., & Gileles-Hillel, A. (2021). Escalation of sleep disturbances amid the COVID-19 Pandemic – A cross-sectional international study. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 17, 45–53.
Choshen -Hillel, S., Lin, Z., & Shaw, A. (2020). Children weigh equity and efficiency in making allocation decisions: Evidence from the US, Israel, and China. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 179, 702–714.
Choshen-Hillel, S., Shaw, A., & Caruso, E. M. (2020). Lying to appear honest. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 149, 1719–1735.
Shaw, A., & Choshen-Hillel, S. (2020). Who are “we”? Dealing with conflicting moral obligations. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 43, e86.
Choshen -Hillel, S., Caruso, E. M., & Shaw, A. (2020). The downsides of trying to appear ethical. Harvard Business Review.
Shaw, A.*, Choshen-Hillel, S.*, & Caruso, E. M. (2018). Being biased against friends to appear unbiased. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 78, 104-115.
Choshen-Hillel, S.*, Shaw, A.*, & Caruso, E. M. (2018). Disadvantaged but not dissatisfied: Agency improves workers’ long-term satisfaction with unequal pay. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 24, 578-599.
Muller-Trede, J., Choshen-Hillel, S., Barneron, M., & Yaniv, I. (2018). The wisdom of crowds in matters of taste. Management Science, 64, 1779-1803.
Gordon-Hecker, T., Choshen-Hillel, S., Shalvi, S., & Bereby-Meyer, Y. (2017). Resource allocation decisions: When do we sacrifice efficiency in the name of equity? In Li, M., & Tracer, D. (Eds.), Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Fairness, Equity and Justice. NY: Springer. Pp. 93-105.
Shaw, A., & Choshen-Hillel, S. (2017). It’s not fair: Folk intuitions about disadvantageous and advantageous inequity aversion. Judgment and Decision Making, 12, 208-223. Shaw, A.,
Choshen-Hillel, S., & Caruso, E. M. (2016). The development of partiality aversion: Understanding when (and why) people give others the bigger piece of the pie. Psychological Science, 27, 1352–1359.
Choshen-Hillel, S., Shaw, A., & Caruso, E. M. (2015). Waste management: How reducing partiality can promote efficient resource allocation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119, 210–231.
Choshen-Hillel, S., & Yaniv, I. (2012). Social preferences shaped by conflicting motives: When enhancing social welfare creates unfavorable comparisons for the self. Judgment and Decision Making, 7, 618–627.
Yaniv, I., & Choshen-Hillel, S. (2012). Exploiting the wisdom of others to make better decisions: Suspending judgment reduces egocentrism and increases accuracy. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 25, 427–434. (Lead article).
Yaniv, I., & Choshen-Hillel, S. (2012). When guessing what another person would say is better than giving your own opinion: Using perspective-taking to improve advice-taking. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 1022–1028.
Choshen-Hillel, S., & Yaniv, I. (2011). Agency and the construction of social preference: Between inequality aversion and prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 1253–1261.
Yaniv, I., Choshen-Hillel, S. & Milyavsky, M. (2011). Receiving advice on matters of taste: Similarity, majority influence, and taste discrimination. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 115, 111–120.
Yaniv, I., Choshen-Hillel, S., & Milyavsky, M. (2009). Spurious consensus and opinion revision: Why might people be more confident in their less accurate judgments? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 35, 558–563
- In the News
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Make the right decision: shorten residents’s nightshifts. Choshen-Hillel, Globes, 9.10.2021 (Hebrew). https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001386583
If you have to hurt your workers, you would prefer to hurt as many as possible – and here is why. “The Marker,” Haaretz, by Tali Heruti-Sover, 10.5.2021 (Hebrew).
https://www.themarker.com/career/.premium-1.9788072People tend to lie to preserve their credibility as truthful. Haaretz, by Assaf Ronel, 31.1.2020 (Hebrew). https://www.haaretz.co.il/science/.premium.highlight-1.8473008
New study finds people may actually lie to appear more honest. Forbes, by Alice G. Walton, 31.1.2020 https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2020/01/31/do-you-lie-to-appear-honest-newstudy-looks-at-the-phenomenon/#653f7965aca7
People lie to seem more honest, study finds. CNN, By Meera Senthilingam, 30.1.2020 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/30/health/lying-to-seem-honest-reputationwellness/index.html
With bosses like these – who needs friends? “The Marker,” Haaretz, by Nadan Feldman, 3.1.2018 (Hebrew). https://www.themarker.com/magazine/1.6792085
Being friends with your boss may cost you a holiday bonus, The Huffington Post, by Monica Torres, 20.12.2018 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/holiday-bonus-friend-bias_n_5c1baf2fe4b05c88b6f5cabc
Being buddies with the boss doesn't always pay off: Managers worry about appearing biased. USA Today, Charisse Jones, 21.12.2018 https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/12/21/buddies-boss-may-cost-you-bonus-timereport-says/2280878002/
Acting like Bert or Ernie, The Jerusalem Post, by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, 30.11.2016. http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Health-and-Science/Acting-like-Bert-or-Ernie474110
The age at which children decide to give to others at their own expense (Hebrew), YNET, by Liat Eiyni, 8.11.2016 http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4875635,00.html
Insights from the Academia: Bonuses to colleagues. “Calcalist”, by Eti Aflalo, 21.10.2015 (Hebrew) http://www.calcalist.co.il/local/articles/0,7340,L-3671314,00.html
How Fairness Leads to Waste (and One Way to Prevent It). SPSP Blog, 10.8.2015 http://www.spsp.org/blog/fairness-leads-to-waste
Fairness depends on who is in charge. Psychology Today, by Art Markman, 20.12.11. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201112/fairness-depends-who-is-incharge
Cutting Wages? Get your workers involved in the decision process. “The Marker,” Haaretz, by Hila Weissberg, 2.2.2012 (Hebrew). http://www.themarker.com/career/1.1631951
On generosity and envy. Galileo Science Journal, by Orit Soliziano, February 2012 (Hebrew). http://psychology.huji.ac.il/.upload/Galileo%202012%20report%20on%20JPSP%20paper.pdf
Choshen-Hillel, S. & Yaniv, I. A play in four acts: The history of the first psychology department in Israel. Etmol: Journal for the History of Israel and the People of Israel, January 2012. (Hebrew) http://ybz.org.il/?CategoryID=185&ArticleID=3672&dbsAuthToken=
To take people’s advice, take their perspective too. Psychology Today, by Art Markman, 3.7.12. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201207/take-people-s-advice-taketheir-perspective-too
- Awards and Honors
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Israeli Science Foundation (with Anat Perry), 2021.
Joy Ventures Academic Grant (with Alex Gileles-Hillel and Anat Perry), 2021Abe Gray Prize, The President’s award for Excellence in Research, awarded by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Jerusalem School of Business Administration, 2016.
Postdoctoral Fellowship, awarded by The Center for Decision Research, Booth School of Business, The University of Chicago, 2013-2015.
Recipient of the Rothschild Fellowship for postdoctoral studies. Awarded by Yad HaNadiv, 2013.
“The De Finetti Prize” for the best PhD paper in the field of judgment and decision making, awarded by the European Association for Decision Making, 2011.
“Runner up for the Einhorn New Investigator Award”, recognized by the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, 2011.
“Best Student’s Paper Award,” awarded by the Israeli Law and Society Association, December, 2010.
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty of Social Sciences, “The President’s Scholarship for Graduate Students”, 2008/9, 2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12
“The Jane Beattie Memorial Scholarship,” awarded by the Society for Judgment and Decision Making and by the European Association for Decision Making, 2008
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Psychology, “Direct” PhD scholarship, 2005/6, 2006/7, 2007/8
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty of Social Sciences, Graduate studies scholarship, 2005/6, 2006/7
Grants:
Joy Ventures Academic Grant (with Alex Gileles-Hillel and Anat Perry), 2021 ($100,000).
Barak Center for Interdisciplinary Law (with Ehud Guttel), 2018 ($4,250).
Barak Center for Interdisciplinary Law (with Netta Barak-Corren), 2018 ($3,000).
German-Israeli Foundation (GIF), young scholars research grant, 2017, (18,000 Euro).
The Social Enterprise Initiative, Booth School of Business, The University of Chicago, 2015 & 2017 (with Eugene Caruso and Alex Shaw) ($14,000).