Eric VanEpps

Media Appearances

• The Simple Habit That Can Improve Your Odds of Getting Hired

  “As perverse as it sounds, a desperate employee isn’t bad for the employer,” says Eric M. VanEpps, an associate professor of marketing at Vanderbilt University and another one of the researchers.

  August 18th, 2026

• Are You Biased Toward Job Candidates Who Reply Quickly?

  Every time you make a hiring decision, you likely have a set of metrics in mind to evaluate candidates. You filter them based on objective qualifications like years of experience and academic degrees, and perhaps you also incorporate more subjective considerations, like letters of recommendation and the quality of an applicant’s cover letter. In all likelihood, you reach out to multiple candidates, but how do you ultimately choose who to hire?

  July 15th, 2026

• The work benefits of Mitfreude: Schadenfreude's benign cousin

  Where possible, you might also attempt to build up others alongside yourself—a strategy known as “dual promotion.” You might compliment someone’s organizational skills while describing your creative contributions to a project, for example. “The fact you’ve said something good about someone else shows that you must be a warm person,” says Eric VanEpps, an associate professor of marketing at Vanderbilt University who conducted this research.

  September 25th, 2025

• VU study highlights citizen pessimism with markets

  The study incorporates a paper, co-authored by Eric VanEpps, associate professor of marketing at Vanderbilt Business, that shows that a lack of confidence from consumers (defined as individuals who are not high-level investors or economists) regarding their ability to forecast, instead of pessimism, sways stock market predictions, often pushing estimates lower than otherwise.

  May 2nd, 2025

• Want a job or promotion? Know the correct way to brag, Wharton professor says

  Schweitzer outlines dual promotion theory in a paper published earlier this year titled “Dual Promotion: Bragging Better By Promoting Peers” which he wrote with co-authors Eric Van Epps of Vanderbilt and Einav Hart of George Mason University.

  December 4th, 2023

• Workplace flattery gets you everywhere

  A new research paper takes this idea further, and suggests that we can still brag about ourselves

  August 23rd, 2023

• How To Brag Without The Backlash, According To New Research

  Eric VanEpps, a professor of marketing at Vanderbilt University and lead author of the study, says that dual-promoting is a little trickier but still feasible for independent workers. "While teammates and coworkers are natural people to promote alongside oneself, we think that independent workers can dual-promote too. In fields where one might know about the achievements of others, even competitors, we think dual-promoting that includes the achievements of others in the field would be appropriate," he said. VanEpps adds a novelist might compliment a book by a fellow novelist, or a politician could praise other individuals achieving change for their constituents.

  August 15th, 2023