Eugene M. Caruso

Profile photo of Eugene M. Caruso
“I want my students to think more like behavioral scientists, and rigorously learn from data, rather than like intuitive scientists ― which we all are by default, just through our experiences in the world.”
 

Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and Behavioral Decision Making

About

 

Biography

Eugene Caruso is an associate professor in UCLA Anderson’s Management and Organizations and Behavioral Decision Making areas. His interest in the psychology of judgment and decision making developed as an undergraduate at Princeton University, primarily in the course of studying with Eldar Shafir and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman.

Caruso began his career in customer research with the Boston-based marketing firm Digitas, analyzing the decision making habits of consumers. Seeking more control over the research questions he pursued, Caruso returned to academia and earned a Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University, where he studied with Max Bazerman, Nick Epley, and Dan Gilbert. His dissertation explored some differences in how people perceive events that have already happened in the past compared to those that will happen in the future, with an emphasis on understanding the implications of these differences for moral and ethical decision making.

“The theme that persists in my research is a fascination with how two or more people who are looking at the same information, or the same seemingly objective facts, can come to very different conclusions,” Caruso says.

Caruso regularly brings his findings into the classroom. His hope is that his students come to understand that while we all have many experiences that enable us to develop reasonable intuitions for behavior in certain situations, we often don’t get the feedback necessary to learn efficiently from our mistakes.

“One great thing about this kind of systematic research is that we can test quite precisely the strategies or the processes that tend to work well, and understand the conditions under which they are and are not effective,” Caruso says. “So, a broad theme in my classes is that managers need to test their intuitions.”

Prior to joining the UCLA Anderson faculty, Caruso was an associate professor in the Behavioral Science program at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

 

 

Education

Ph.D. Social Psychology, 2007, Harvard University

M.A. Social Psychology, 2004, Harvard University

B.A. Psychology, cum laude, 1998, Princeton University

 

Publications

 

Referreed Journals

Kardas, M., Shaw, A., & Caruso, E. M. (in press). How to give away your cake and eat it too: Relinquishing control prompts reciprocal generosity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Choshen-Hillel, S., Shaw, A., & Caruso, E. M. (in press). Disadvantaged but not dissatisfied: How agency ameliorates negative reactions to unequal pay. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.

Burns, P., McCormack, T., Jaroslawska, A., Fitzpatrick, A., McGourty, J., & Caruso, E. M. (in press). The development of asymmetries in past and future thinking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Shaw, A., Choshen-Hillel, S., & Caruso, E. M. (2018). Being biased against friends to appear unbiased. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 78, 104–115.

Caruso, E. M., Shapira, O., & Landy, J. F. (2017). Show me the money: A systematic exploration of manipulations, moderators, and mechanisms of priming effects. Psychological Science, 28, 1148–1159.

Whillans, A. V., Caruso, E. M., & Dunn, E. W. (2017). Both selfishness and selflessness start with the self: How wealth shapes responses to charitable appeals. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 70, 242– 250.
Featured as “Editor’s Choice” in Science (2017), 355, 258–259.

Shaw, A., Choshen-Hillel, S., & Caruso, E. M. (2016). The development of inequity aversion: Understanding when (and why) people give others the bigger piece of the pie. Psychological Science, 27, 1352–1359.

Caruso, E. M., Burns, Z. C., & Converse, B. A. (2016). Slow motion increases perceived intent. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113, 9250–9255.

Schroeder, J., Caruso, E. M., & Epley, N. (2016). Many hands make overlooked work: Overclaiming of responsibility increases with group size. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 22, 238–246.

Stern, C., Balcetis, E., Cole, S., West, T. V., & Caruso, E. M. (2016). Government instability shifts skin tone representations of and intentions to vote for political candidates. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110, 76–95.

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, 109, 210–231.

Caruso, E. M., Van Boven, L., Chin, M., & Ward, A. (2013). The temporal Doppler effect: When the future feels closer than the past. Psychological Science, 24, 530–536.

Caruso, E. M., Vohs, K. D., Baxter, B., & Waytz, A. (2013). Mere exposure to money increases support for free-market systems and social inequality. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142, 301–306.

Burns, Z. C., Caruso, E. M., & Bartels, D. M. (2012). Predicting premeditation: Future behavior is seen as more intentional than past behavior. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141, 227–232.

Caruso, E. M., & Gino, F. (2011). Blind ethics: Closing one’s eyes polarizes moral judgments and discourages dishonest behavior. Cognition, 118, 280–285.

Caruso, E. M. (2010). When the future feels worse than the past: A temporal inconsistency in moral judgment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139, 610–624.

Caruso, E. M., Waytz, A., & Epley, N. (2010). The intentional mind and the hot hand: Perceiving intentions makes streaks seem likely to continue. Cognition, 116, 149–153.

Caruso, E. M., Mead, N. L., & Balcetis, E. (2009). Political partisanship influences perception of biracial candidates’ skin tone. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106, 20168–20173.

Morewedge, C. K., Kassam, K., Hsee, C. K., & Caruso, E. M. (2009). Duration sensitivity depends on stimulus familiarity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 138, 177–186.

Caruso, E. M., Rahnev, D. A., & Banaji, M. R. (2009). Using conjoint analysis to detect discrimination: Revealing covert preferences from overt choices. Social Cognition, 27, 128–137.

Caruso, E. M., Gilbert, D. T., & Wilson, T. D. (2008). A wrinkle in time: Asymmetric valuation of past and future events. Psychological Science, 19, 796–801.

Caruso, E. M. (2008). Use of experienced retrieval ease in self and social judgments. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 148–155.

Caruso, E. M., Epley, N., & Bazerman, M. H. (2006). The costs and benefits of undoing egocentric responsibility assessments in groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 857–871.
Featured as “Editor’s Choice” in Science (2006), 314, 1659–1661.

Epley, N., Caruso, E. M., & Bazerman, M. H. (2006). When perspective taking increases taking: Reactive Egoism in social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 872–889.

Caruso, E. M., & Shafir, E. (2006). Now that I think about it, I’m in the mood for laughs: Decisions focused on mood. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 19, 155–169.

 

Working Papers

Caruso, E. M., & Van Boven, L. (2018). Temporal asymmetries in prospection and retrospection.

Caruso, E. M., & Molouki, S. (2017). The past is more detailed than the future, even when it isn’t.

Kristal, A. C., O’Brien, E., & Caruso, E. M. (2018). Yesterday’s news: A temporal discontinuity in the sting of inferiority.

Molouki, S., Hardisty, D. J., & Caruso, E. M. (2018). The sign effect in past and future discounting.

Jaroslawska, A., McCormack, T., Burns, P., & Caruso, E. M. (2018). Outcomes versus intentions in fairness-related decision making: Children’s decisions are just like those of adults.

Caruso, E. M., & Wheeler, N. M. (2017). Preference for past pain: An empirical test of the bias toward the future.

Turner, B., Caruso, E. M., Dilich, M., & Roese, N. J. (2018). Body camera footage alters perceived intent.

Bregant, J. L., Shaw, A., & Caruso, E. M. (2018). Expressing what?: Evaluating the expressive value of punishment.

Landy, J. F., Linder, J. N., & Caruso, E. M. (2018). Latent intentions: When over-justification makes you seem like a worse person.

Shaw, A., & Caruso, E. M. (2018). The effect of donation thresholds on generosity.

Schroeder, J., Caruso, E. M., & Epley, N. (2017). The illusion of indirect contribution.