In five studies, we found that people like their names enough to unconsciously pursue consciously avoided outcomes that resemble their names. Baseball players avoid strikeouts, but players whose names begin with the strikeout-signifying letter K strike out more than others (Study 1). All students want As, but students whose names begin with letters associated with poorer performance (C and D) a...

We explore the behavior of losers of promotion tournaments after the tournament is concluded. We do so through the use of an experiment in which we vary the design of the promotion tournament to determine how tournament design affects post tournament effort. We provide a theoretical model demonstrating two possible effects from the tournaments which are strategic sabotage and the possibility th...

As of 1996, 48 nuclear power reactors were operating in five newly independent states (NIS) of the former Soviet Union: 29 units at nine sites in Russia, 15 units at five sites in Ukraine, a double unit plant in Lithuania, and one unit each in Armenia and Kazakstan. These nuclear power facilities need to be reliably protected against possible radiological sabotage or terrorism. The post-Soviet ...

In this paper, we show how we have been able to use parallel parametric analysis and Monte Carlo simulations, running on a Java applet-based volunteer computing system, Bayanihan, to develop and study new mechanisms for addressing the problem of sabotage by malicious volunteers in volunteer computing and Internet computing systems. We begin by describing the general-purpose framework we have de...