Finally, I talked to Yosuke Morishima, a post-doctoral student in micro economics and experimental economic research at the University of Zurich, who told me about a classic behavioral economics study conducted in the mid 1980s.
Lottery-based incentive programs in the workplace fall broadly into the realm of behavioral economics, a field of study that looks at how psychological factors weigh on economic decisions.
They could be falling prey to a consumer trap labeled "relative thinking" in a study published last year in the academic journal American Behavioral Scientist.
Richard Shelton, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral neurobiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has been conducting a small study and has used ketamine this way in 16 people.
This study shows that viewing cute things improves subsequent performance in tasks that require behavioral carefulness, possibly by narrowing the breadth of attentional focus.
Wysocki questioned the procedures that the Stony Brook study used to isolate the sweat chemicals from participants and whether the actual compound that could have triggered behavioral patterns was preserved.