The International Centre for Resilient Supply Chains and the Behavioral and Decision Research Lab of the Faculty of Business and Management will host a seminar series on December 16 (Tuesday), 14:00–16:00 at T7-106-R1. The series will feature two distinguished scholars from Shandong University.

Session 1

Title: Swagger and Bragging

Speaker: Prof. Jaimie W. LIEN, Center for Economic Research, Shandong University

Date: December 16, 2025 (Tuesday), 14:00–15:00

Venue: T7-106-R1

Abstract:

An individual’s public declarations to others about what they have done, or plan to do, are a potentially powerful source of individual motivation. We examine the influences of two types of boasting, swagger (ex-ante declaration of future goals) and bragging (ex-post declaration of accomplishments), in a series of laboratory experiments. Our experimental design allows observation of the effects of both private declarations and public ones with social media-style peer approval. We observe that different types of opportunities to boast significantly affect performance outcomes, but not always in a positive direction. Overall, our study demonstrates a significant effect of boasting on outcomes, while the explanatory factors behind social approval mechanisms can be complex.

Speaker Bio:

Jaimie W. Lien is University Distinguished Professor at Center for Economic Research, Shandong University, and serves as the Co-Director for the Center for Research on Experimental and Theoretical Economics (CREATE). Dr. Lien received her B.A in Economics and Mathematics from Wellesley College, M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from University of California, San Diego. She was awarded International Excellent Young Scientist of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. She has served as Guest Editor and Editorial Board Member for international academic journals such as North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Scientific Reports and International Journal of Finance and Economics.

Her main research fields are behavioral economics, experimental economics and applied microeconomics, focusing on behavioral phenomena including cooperation and reciprocity, reference-dependence, present-bias and representativeness bias. She has served as Principal Investigator on projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Education, and the Hong Kong Research Grants Council. Her research has been published in international journals including Nature Communications, Proceedings of the National Academic of Sciences, American Economic Review (Papers and Proceedings), Economic Journal, Games and Economic Behavior, Experimental Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Economic Inquiry, and others.

Session 2

Title: Paternalism in a World of Uncertainty: An Experimental Study

Speaker: Prof. Jie ZHENG, Center for Economic Research, Shandong University

Date: December 16, 2025 (Tuesday), 15:00–16:00

Venue: T7-106-R1

Abstract:

When are people more strongly motivated to intervene in others' decisions under risk? We consider two dimensions: the difficulty of the decision problems and the informational advantage of the Choice Architect (CA). An easier decision problem, proxied by a larger gap between the expected payoffs of the two options, led to significantly more intervention. In addition, having the opportunity to share private information lowers the intervention from the CA. We propose a theory of a benevolent CA who overestimates the decision errors of the decision maker to describe the CA's paternalistic behavior.

Speaker Bio:

Jie Zheng is University Distinguished Professor at Shandong University, and he serves as the Director for the Center for Research on Experimental and Theoretical Economics (CREATE). He is recognized as Distinguished Expert of “Taishan Scholar” Project in Shandong Province, and Junior Scholar of “Changjiang Scholar Award” Project by Ministry of Education of the Chinese Government.

Dr. Zheng received his B.A and M.A. in Economics from Tsinghua University, and Ph.D. in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and has been on a guest editor for many other SSCI/SCI journals.

His main research fields are information economics, industrial economics, experimental economics and behavioral economics. He has published over 60 research papers in journals including Nature Communications, American Economic Review (Papers and Proceedings), Games and Economic Behavior, Management Science, Journal of Industrial Economics, Journal of Mathematical Economics, Experimental Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, as well as top Chinese journals.

For inquiries: decisionlab@uic.edu.cn

Organizers:

Faculty of Business and Management,

International Centre for Resilient Supply Chains & Behavioral and Decision Research Lab