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Daniel Effron

Professor of Organisational Behaviour

BA (Yale) PhD (Stanford)

A social psychologist by training, Professor Daniel A Effron teaches about ethics, influence, and other topics related to the science of people in organizations. Before joining London Business School, he taught negotiations at the Kellogg School of Management, and was a fellow of the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University.

His research examines the psychology of (1) how people act in ethically questionable ways without feeling unethical, and (2) what shapes people’s judgments of others’ unethical behaviour. His current projects focus on judgments of hypocrisy, fake news, and what leads people to let leaders off the hook for dishonesty.

Professor Effron's research has appeared in top scholarly publications such as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and Journal of Consumer Research. His work has been discussed in media outlets such as The New York Times, Financial Times, BBC News, The Atlantic, Forbes, and Bloomberg. Named one of the "Best 40 Business Professors Under 40" by Poets & Quants, he received teaching awards from the London Business School MBA classes of 2015 and 2020, and his doctoral work was honoured with an American Psychological Association Dissertation Award.

To learn more about Professor Effron's research, please visit www.danieleffron.com

Research and Awards


  • MBA Class of 2020 Teaching Award (2019)

  • Named one of the “40 Best Business Professors Under 40” by Poets and Quants (2018)

  • Junior Faculty Research Award for achievement in research, London Business School (2015)

  • MBA Class of 2015 Teaching Award (2014)

  • American Psychological Association Dissertation Research Award (2010)


  • Ethics
  • Fake News
  • Diversity
  • Social Psychology

2024

'It's not literally true, but you get the gist': How nuanced understandings of truth encourage people to condone and spread misinformation

Langdon J A; Helgason B A; Qiu J; Effron D A

Current Opinion in Psychology 2024 Vol 57 p 101788 Online first

Motivated counterfactual thinking and moral inconsistency: how we use our imaginations to selectively condemn and condone

Effron D A; Epstude K; Roese N J

Current Directions in Psychological Science 2024 Online first

2023

Can Self-affirmation Encourage HIV-Prevention? Evidence from Female Sex Workers in Senegal

Haire S; Lépine A; Effron D A; Treibich C

AIDS and Behavior 2023 Vol 73:10 p 3183-3196

Moral inconsistency

Effron D; Helgason B A

Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 2023 Vol 67 p 1-72

Repeatedly encountered descriptions of wrongdoing seem more true but less unethical: Evidence in a naturalistic setting

Pillai R M; Fazio L K; Effron D

Psychological Science 2023 Vol 34:8 p 863-874

2022

Consequences of perceiving organization members as a unified entity: Stronger attraction, but greater blame for member transgressions

Effron D; Kakkar H; Cable D M

Journal of Applied Psychology 2022 Vol 107:11 p 1951-1972

From Critical to Hypocritical: Counterfactual Thinking Increases Partisan Disagreement About Media Hypocrisy

Helgason B A; Effron D A

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2022 Vol 101 In Press

It Might Become True: How Prefactual Thinking Licenses Dishonesty

Helgason B A; Effron D A

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2022 Vol 123:5 p 909-940

Polarized Imagination: Partisanship Influences the Direction and Consequences of Counterfactual Thinking

Epstude K; Effron D A; Roese N J

Philosophical Transactions B 2022 In Press

The Moral Psychology of Misinformation: Why We Excuse Dishonesty in a Post-Truth World

Effron D A; Helgason B

Current Opinion in Psychology 2022 October Vol 47 In Press

The Moral Repetition Effect: Bad Deeds Seem Less Unethical When Repeatedly Encountered

Effron D A

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 2022 Vol 151:10 p 2562-2585

2021

Disclosing interpersonal conflicts of interest: revealing whom we like, but not whom we dislike

Effron D A; Raj M

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 2021 May Vol 164 p 68-85

Moral credentials and the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary: no evidence that endorsing female candidates licenses people to favor men

Giurge L M; Lin H-L E; Effron D A

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2021 Vol 95:July p 104144

2020

Misinformation and morality: encountering fake-news headlines makes them seem less unethical to publish and share

Effron D A; Raj M

Psychological Science 2020 Vol 31:1 p 75-87

Moral cleansing as hypocrisy: When private acts of charity make you feel better than you deserve

O'Connor K; Effron D A; Lucas B J

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2020 Vol 119:3 p 540-559

2019

An exploratory investigation of Americans' expression of gender bias before and after the 2016 presidential election

Georgeac O; Rattan A; Effron D A

Social Psychological and Personality Science 2019 Vol 10:5 p 632-642

2018

From inconsistency to hypocrisy: When does “saying one thing but doing another” invite condemnation?

Effron D A; O'Connor K; Leroy H; Lucas B J

Research in Organizational Behavior 2018 Vol 38 p 61-75

Group cohesion benefits individuals who express prejudice, but harms their group

Effron D; Kakkar H; Knowles E D

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2018 November Vol 79 p 239-251

Hypocrisy and culture : Failing to practice what you preach receives harsher interpersonal reactions in independent (vs. interdependent) cultures

Effron D A; Markus H R; Jackman L M; Muramoto Y; Muluk H

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2018 Vol 76 p 371-384

It could have been true: How counterfactual thoughts reduce condemnation of falsehoods and increase political polarization

Effron D A

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2018 Vol 44:5 p 729-745

Other people's money: Money's perceived purchasing power is smaller for others than for the self

Polman E; Effron D A; Thomas M

Journal of Consumer Research 2018 Vol 45:1 p 109-125

Why Trump supporters don’t mind his lies

Effron D A

New York Times 2018

2016

Beyond “being good frees us to be bad:” Moral self-licensing and the fabrication of moral credentials

Effron D A

in Prooijen, J-W van & Lange P A M van (Eds.), Cheating, corruption, and concealment : the roots of dishonesty, Cambridge University Press, 2016

2015

Cheating at the end to avoid regret

Effron D A; Bryan C J; Murnighan J K

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2015 Vol 109:3 p 395-414

Do as I say, not as I’ve done: Suffering for a misdeed reduces the hypocrisy of advising against it

Effron D A; Miller D T

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 2015 Vol 131 p 16-32

Entitativity and intergroup bias: How belonging to a cohesive group allows people to express their prejudices

Effron D A; Knowles E D

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2015 Vol 108:2 p 234-253

Ethical decision-making: Contemporary research on the role of the self

Shu L L; Effron D A

In R. Scott & S. Kosslyn (Eds.), Emerging trends in the social and behavioral sciences, Wiley 2015, pp. 1-9

Hypocrisy by association: When organizational membership increases condemnation for wrongdoing

Effron D A; Lucas B J; O'Connor K

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 2015 Vol 130:Sept p 147-159

When virtue leads to villainy: Advances in research on moral self-licensing

Effron D A; Conway P

Current Opinion in Psychology 2015 Vol 6 p 32-35

2014

Making mountains of morality from molehills of virtue: Threat causes people to overestimate their moral credentials

Effron D A

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2014 Vol 40:8 p 972-985

2013

The unhealthy road not taken: Licensing indulgence by exaggerating counterfactual sins

Effron D A; Monin B; Miller D T

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2013 Vol 49:3 p 573-578

2012

Hero or hypocrite? A psychological perspective on the risks and benefits of positive character evidence

Effron D A

The Jury Expert 2012 Vol 24:4

How the moralization of issues grants social legitimacy to act on one’s attitudes

Effron D A; Miller D T

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2012 Vol 38:5 p 690-701

Inventing racist roads not taken: The licensing effect of immoral counterfactual behaviors

Effron D A; Miller D T; Monin B

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2012 Vol 103:6 p 916-932

The strategic pursuit of moral credentials

Merritt A C; Effron D A; Fein S; Savitsky K K; Tuller D M; Monin B

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2012 Vol 48:3 p 774-777

2011

Affirmation, acknowledgment of ingroup responsibility, group-based guilt, and support for reparative measures

Cehajic-Clancy S; Effron D A; Halperin E; Liberman V; Ross L D

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2011 Vol 101:2 p 256-270

Diffusion of entitlement: An inhibitory effect of scarcity on consumption

Effron D A; Miller D T

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2011 Vol 47:2 p 378-383

Reducing exposure to trust-related risks to avoid self-blame

Effron D A; Miller D T

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2011 Vol 37:2 p 181-192

2010

Letting people off the hook: When do good deeds excuse transgressions?

Effron D A; Monin B

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2010:36 p 1618-1634

Moral self-licensing: When being good frees us to be bad

Merritt A M; Effron D A; Monin B

Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2010 Vol 4:5 p 344-357

Psychological license: When it is needed and how it functions

Miller D T; Effron D A

M. P. Zanna and J. Olson (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 43, pp. 117-158). San Diego, CA: Academic Press/Elsevier. 2010

2009

Endorsing Obama licenses favoring Whites

Effron D A; Cameron J S; Monin B

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2009 Vol 45:3 p 590-593

From moral outrage to social protest: The role of psychological standing

Miller D T; Effron D A; Zak S V

In D. R. Bobocel, A. C. Kay, M. P. Zanna & J. M. Olson (Eds.), The psychology of justice and legitimacy: The Ontario symposium (Vol. 11, pp. 103-123). New York: Psychological Press 2009

Representing social concepts modally and amodally

Niedenthal P M; Mondillon L; Effron D A; Barsalou L W

In F. Strack & J. Förster (Eds.), Social Cognition: The Basis of Human Interaction. Frontiers of social psychology. (pp. 23-47). New York: Psychological Press 2009

2006

Embodied temporal perception of emotion

Effron D A; Niedenthal P M; Gil S; Droit-Volet S

Emotion 2006:6 p 1-9


Teaching portfolio

Our teaching offering is updated annually. Faculty and programme material are subject to change.