Research Notes: Eric Hamerman

Eric Hamerman’s paper “Reliance on Luck: Identifying Which Achievement Goals Elicit Superstitious Behavior,” co-authored with Carey Morewedge, associate professor of marketing at Boston University School of Management, has been accepted for publication in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. In the paper, the authors find that people are more likely to turn to superstitions to achieve performance goals as opposed to learning goals. Performance goals are when people try to be judged as successful by others. They tend to be extrinsically motivated and are perceived to be susceptible to influence from outside forces. Learning goals, by contrast, are often judged internally, and due to their intrinsic motivation, there is a perception that they are internally controlled and less likely to be impacted by outside forces. Hamerman is an assistant professor of marketing at the Freeman School.