Daniel Effron

A social psychologist by training, Dr Daniel A Effron teaches about ethics, influence, and other topics related to the science of people in organizations. Before joining London Business School, he taught negotiations at the Kellogg School of Management, and was a fellow of the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University.

His research examines the psychology of (1) how people act in ethically questionable ways without feeling unethical, and (2) what shapes people’s judgments of others’ unethical behaviour. His current projects focus on judgments of hypocrisy, fake news, and what leads people to let leaders off the hook for dishonesty.

Dr Effron's research has appeared in top scholarly publications such as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. His work has been discussed in media outlets such as The New York Times, Financial Times, BBC News, The Atlantic, Forbes, and Bloomberg. Named one of the "Best 40 Business Professors Under 40" by Poets & Quants, he received teaching awards from the London Business School MBA classes of 2015 and 2020, and his doctoral work was honoured with an American Psychological Association Dissertation Award.

Research interests

• Ethics
  
• Fake News
  
• Diversity
  
• Social Psychology
  

Publications

• Disclosing interpersonal conflicts of interest: revealing whom we like, but not whom we dislike
  Effron D A; Raj M
  Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 2021 May Vol 164 p 68-85

• Moral credentials and the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary: no evidence that endorsing female candidates licenses people to favor men
  Giurge L M; Lin H-L E; Effron D A
  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2021 Vol 95:July p 104144

• Misinformation and morality: encountering fake-news headlines makes them seem less unethical to publish and share
  Effron D A; Raj M
  Psychological Science 2020 Vol 31:1 p 75-87

• Moral cleansing as hypocrisy: When private acts of charity make you feel better than you deserve
  O'Connor K; Effron D A; Lucas B J
  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2020 Vol 119:3 p 540-559

• An exploratory investigation of Americans' expression of gender bias before and after the 2016 presidential election
  Georgeac O; Rattan A; Effron D A
  Social Psychological and Personality Science 2019 Vol 10:5 p 632-642

• From inconsistency to hypocrisy: When does “saying one thing but doing another” invite condemnation?
  Effron D A; O'Connor K; Leroy H; Lucas B J
  Research in Organizational Behavior 2018 Vol 38 p 61-75

• Group cohesion benefits individuals who express prejudice, but harms their group
  Effron D; Kakkar H; Knowles E D
  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2018 November Vol 79 p 239-251

• Hypocrisy and culture : Failing to practice what you preach receives harsher interpersonal reactions in independent (vs. interdependent) cultures
  Effron D A; Markus H R; Jackman L M; Muramoto Y; Muluk H
  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2018 Vol 76 p 371-384

• It could have been true: How counterfactual thoughts reduce condemnation of falsehoods and increase political polarization
  Effron D A
  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2018 Vol 44:5 p 729-745

• Other people's money: Money's perceived purchasing power is smaller for others than for the self
  Polman E; Effron D A; Thomas M
  Journal of Consumer Research 2018 Vol 45:1 p 109-125

• Why Trump supporters don’t mind his lies
  Effron D A
  New York Times 2018

• Beyond “being good frees us to be bad:” Moral self-licensing and the fabrication of moral credentials
  Effron D A
  in Prooijen, J-W van & Lange P A M van (Eds.), Cheating, corruption, and concealment : the roots of dishonesty, Cambridge University Press, 2016

• Cheating at the end to avoid regret
  Effron D A; Bryan C J; Murnighan J K
  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2015 Vol 109 p 395-414

• Do as I say, not as I’ve done: Suffering for a misdeed reduces the hypocrisy of advising against it
  Effron D A; Miller D T
  Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 2015 Vol 131 p 16-32

• Entitativity and intergroup bias: How belonging to a cohesive group allows people to express their prejudices
  Effron D A; Knowles E D
  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2015 Vol 108 p 234-253

• Ethical decision-making: Contemporary research on the role of the self
  Shu L L; Effron D A
  In R. Scott & S. Kosslyn (Eds.), Emerging trends in the social and behavioral sciences, Wiley 2015, pp. 1-9

• Hypocrisy by association: When organizational membership increases condemnation for wrongdoing
  Effron D A; Lucas B J; O'Connor K
  Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 2015 Vol 130:Sept p 147-159

• When virtue leads to villainy: Advances in research on moral self-licensing
  Effron D A; Conway P
  Current Opinion in Psychology 2015 Vol 6 p 32-35

• Making mountains of morality from molehills of virtue: Threat causes people to overestimate their moral credentials
  Effron D A
  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2014 Vol 40 p 972-985

• The unhealthy road not taken: Licensing indulgence by exaggerating counterfactual sins
  Effron D A; Monin B; Miller D T
  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2013 Vol 49:3 p 573-578

• Hero or hypocrite? A psychological perspective on the risks and benefits of positive character evidence
  Effron D A
  The Jury Expert 2012 Vol 24:4

• How the moralization of issues grants social legitimacy to act on one’s attitudes
  Effron D A; Miller D T
  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2012 Vol 38:5 p 690-701

• Inventing racist roads not taken: The licensing effect of immoral counterfactual behaviors
  Effron D A; Miller D T; Monin B
  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2012 Vol 103:6 p 916-932

• The strategic pursuit of moral credentials
  Merritt A C; Effron D A; Fein S; Savitsky K K; Tuller D M; Monin B
  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2012 Vol 48:3 p 774-777

• Affirmation, acknowledgment of ingroup responsibility, group-based guilt, and support for reparative measures
  Cehajic-Clancy S; Effron D A; Halperin E; Liberman V; Ross L D
  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2011 Vol 101:2 p 256-270

• Diffusion of entitlement: An inhibitory effect of scarcity on consumption
  Effron D A; Miller D T
  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2011 Vol 47:2 p 378-383

• Reducing exposure to trust-related risks to avoid self-blame
  Effron D A; Miller D T
  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2011 Vol 37:2 p 181-192

• Letting people off the hook: When do good deeds excuse transgressions?
  Effron D A; Monin B
  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2010:36 p 1618-1634

• Moral self-licensing: When being good frees us to be bad
  Merritt A M; Effron D A; Monin B
  Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2010 Vol 4:5 p 344-357

• Psychological license: When it is needed and how it functions
  Miller D T; Effron D A
  M. P. Zanna and J. Olson (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 43, pp. 117-158). San Diego, CA: Academic Press/Elsevier. 2010

• Endorsing Obama licenses favoring Whites
  Effron D A; Cameron J S; Monin B
  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2009 Vol 45:3 p 590-593

• From moral outrage to social protest: The role of psychological standing
  Miller D T; Effron D A; Zak S V
  In D. R. Bobocel, A. C. Kay, M. P. Zanna & J. M. Olson (Eds.), The psychology of justice and legitimacy: The Ontario symposium (Vol. 11, pp. 103-123). New York: Psychological Press 2009

• Representing social concepts modally and amodally
  Niedenthal P M; Mondillon L; Effron D A; Barsalou L W
  In F. Strack & J. Förster (Eds.), Social Cognition: The Basis of Human Interaction. Frontiers of social psychology. (pp. 23-47). New York: Psychological Press 2009

• Embodied temporal perception of emotion
  Effron D A; Niedenthal P M; Gil S; Droit-Volet S
  Emotion 2006:6 p 1-9

Research and Awards

• MBA Class of 2020 Teaching Award (2019)
  
• Named one of the “40 Best Business Professors Under 40” by Poets and Quants (2018)
  
• Junior Faculty Research Award for achievement in research, London Business School (2015)
  
• MBA Class of 2015 Teaching Award (2014)
  
• American Psychological Association Dissertation Research Award (2010)