Date: June 12-14 2025Location: Paris School of Economics (PSE), 48 Boulevard Jourdan, 75014, Paris

To participate please fill in this form by June 1st: Registration Form 

More information here.

Marketing Research Seminar - On Campus Room  X120 (EXED BUILDING)

Zoom link: https://hec-fr.zoom.us/j/93802327523

Eesha Sharma - Associate Professor, Academic Affairs, Fowler College of Business - Marketing Department - San Diego (USA). 

Title: Prioritizing Emotional Well-Being is Socially Penalized

Abstract: As emotional wellness initiatives expand alongside the established physical wellness movement, individuals are increasingly encouraged to prioritize both physical and emotional needs. Yet, do people judge these pursuits the same? Across seven studies (N = 4,959) including both archival data and tightly controlled experiments, we document a robust asymmetry in social judgment: Prioritizing emotional well-being is more socially penalized than prioritizing physical well-being—even when the trade-offs and consequences are held constant. This effect emerges across 30 contexts, from celebrities canceling public appearances, to everyday social interactions, to evaluations on popular online fora. Moreover, this social penalty is not reducible to mere mental health stigma. Instead, it stems from a belief that neglecting emotional well-being is less costly than neglecting physical well-being, making emotional prioritization seem less appropriate. This perception holds above and beyond ambiguity, severity, and ease of compartmentalization. Underscoring the driving role of perceived decision cost, a brief chatbot intervention designed to increase awareness of the costs of neglecting emotional well-being successfully reduced the penalty, suggesting a promising avenue for raising awareness and shifting social norms. Beyond enriching knowledge about the stigmas associated with emotional well-being, these findings reveal a cultural contradiction at the heart of modern wellness discourse: While society urges individuals to take care of their emotional well-being, it penalizes them when they do. By surfacing and explaining this asymmetry, and identifying a path to mitigate it, this work calls for a reevaluation of how we define, communicate, and support well-being—both socially and structurally.

Organisers: Tomasz Michalski and Eric Mengus (Department EDS)

Room: X013

Department of Economics and Decision Sciences

Speaker:  V. Bhaskar (UT Austin)

Room S-020

Department: Finance

Speaker: Margarita Tsoutsoura (Washington University)

Room: TBD

Information Systems and Operations Management

Speaker: Dashun Wang, from kellogg School of Management

Room Bernard Ramanantsoa

Information Systems and Operations Management

Speaker: Talal Rahwan from New York University Abu Dhabi

Room Bernard Ramanantsoa