Erica Boothby
- Senior Lecturer
Contact Information
- Primary Email:
boothby@wharton.upenn.edu
- office Address:
3730 Walnut Street
551 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Research Interests: social influence, interpersonal interaction, conversation, metaperception, judgment and decision making, shared experience
Links: Personal Website, CV, Google Scholar
Overview
Erica Boothby is a Senior Lecturer at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She teaches a Negotiations course that draws heavily on her expertise in social psychology, including her research on decision-making and social influence. Erica’s research focuses on the psychological processes that shape individuals’ often erroneous beliefs about their effects on others through daily interactions like conversations, shared experiences, and acts of kindness. Erica’s work has been published in leading academic journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Psychological Science, and it has featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and NPR’s Hidden Brain. Erica’s Negotiations course has received the Wharton Teaching Excellence award, and Erica was named one of Poets&Quants’ 50 Best Professors of 2023.
Prior to arriving at The Wharton School, Erica completed her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at Yale University and was a Fellow at Cornell University’s Behavioral Economics and Decision Research Center. She has a degree in Philosophy and Italian from Boston University.
Research
Maurice Schweitzer, Krueger, K. Erica Boothby, Gus Cooney (Forthcoming), Negotiation.
Maurice Schweitzer, Erica Boothby, Gus Cooney (2023), Embracing Complexity: A Review of Negotiation Research, Annual Review of Psychology, 74: 12.1-12.34 ().
Abstract: We negotiate daily with employers, coworkers, merchants, friends, romantic partners, children, and more. The outcomes of these negotiations affect the prices we pay, the salaries we earn, where our next vacation will be, and whether our children will finish their vegetables. In a review of the literature, we identify emerging trends in negotiation scholarship that embrace complexity, such as research that finds moderators of effects that were initially described as monolithic, examines the nuances of social interaction, and approaches negotiation as it occurs in the real world. All told the negotiation literature has produced many important and practical insights, and the existing research highlights negotiation as an exciting context for examining human behavior, characterized by features such as strong emotions, an intriguing blend of cooperation and competition, the presence of fundamental issues such as power and group identity, and outcomes that deeply affect the trajectory of people’s personal and professional lives. Finally, of particular interest is the potential crosstalk between negotiation research and emerging research on conversation, which is something that I am actively pursuing.
Erica Boothby (2018), The liking gap in conversations: do people like us more than we think?, Psychological Science.
Abstract: Having conversations with new people is an important and rewarding part of social life. Yet conversations can also be intimidating and anxiety provoking, and this makes people wonder and worry about what their conversation partners really think of them. Are people accurate in their estimates? We found that following interactions, people systematically underestimated how much their conversation partners liked them and enjoyed their company, an illusion we call the liking gap. We observed the liking gap as strangers got acquainted in the laboratory, as first-year college students got to know their dorm mates, and as formerly unacquainted members of the general public got to know each other during a personal development workshop. The liking gap persisted in conversations of varying lengths and even lasted for several months, as college dorm mates developed new relationships. Our studies suggest that after people have conversations, they are liked more than they know.
Teaching
Current Courses (Fall 2024)
LGST2910 - Negotiations
This course examines the art and science of negotiation, with additional emphasis on conflict resolution. Students will engage in a number of simulated negotiations ranging from simple one-issue transactions to multi-party joint ventures. Through these exercises and associated readings, students explore the basic theoretical models of bargaining and have an opportunity to test and improve their negotiation skills.
LGST2910401 ( Syllabus )
LGST2910402 ( Syllabus )
LGST2910403 ( Syllabus )
MGMT2910 - Negotiations
This course examines the art and science of negotiation, with additional emphasis on conflict resolution. Students will engage in a number of simulated negotiations ranging from simple one-issue transactions to multi-party joint ventures. Through these exercises and associated readings, students explore the basic theoretical models of bargaining and have an opportunity to test and improve their negotiation skills.
MGMT2910401 ( Syllabus )
MGMT2910402 ( Syllabus )
MGMT2910403 ( Syllabus )
OIDD2910 - Negotiations
This course examines the art and science of negotiation, with additional emphasis on conflict resolution. Students will engage in a number of simulated negotiations ranging from simple one-issue transactions to multi-party joint ventures. Through these exercises and associated readings, students explore the basic theoretical models of bargaining and have an opportunity to test and improve their negotiation skills.
OIDD2910401 ( Syllabus )
OIDD2910402 ( Syllabus )
OIDD2910403 ( Syllabus )
All Courses
LGST2910 - Negotiations
This course examines the art and science of negotiation, with additional emphasis on conflict resolution. Students will engage in a number of simulated negotiations ranging from simple one-issue transactions to multi-party joint ventures. Through these exercises and associated readings, students explore the basic theoretical models of bargaining and have an opportunity to test and improve their negotiation skills.
MGMT2910 - Negotiations
This course examines the art and science of negotiation, with additional emphasis on conflict resolution. Students will engage in a number of simulated negotiations ranging from simple one-issue transactions to multi-party joint ventures. Through these exercises and associated readings, students explore the basic theoretical models of bargaining and have an opportunity to test and improve their negotiation skills.
OIDD2910 - Negotiations
This course examines the art and science of negotiation, with additional emphasis on conflict resolution. Students will engage in a number of simulated negotiations ranging from simple one-issue transactions to multi-party joint ventures. Through these exercises and associated readings, students explore the basic theoretical models of bargaining and have an opportunity to test and improve their negotiation skills.
Awards and Honors
- , 1970
In the News
- Want to Seem More Likable? Try This, New York Times - 09/23/2018
- People Like You More Than You Think, Study Finds, Forbes - 09/17/2018
- You’re Too Focused on What You’re Focused On, New York Times - 04/29/2017
- The Importance of Sharing Experiences, The Atlantic - 10/16/2014