As students, engineers-to-be rarely get a chance to examine topics in business psychology, but Mark Liam Murphy, a sophomore from Wilmington, N.C., spent his first summer on campus at the University of Pennsylvania doing just that. 

By participating in the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentorship Program, Murphy, a 19-year-old systems science and engineering major in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, stayed on campus during the summer months to explore areas that he wouldn’t normally get a chance to study during the academic year, like deception and humor as they pertain to business negotiations. 

“My interests are far-reaching, and undergraduate research is one way to delve into those interests without majoring in them,” Murphy, who has always had an interest in psychology, says. 

This summer, he played a supportive role in multiple business psychology studies, working in the behavioral labs, revising manuscripts and participating in data collection and analysis. He worked on different projects at various points of completion during the multiple stages of the research process. 

Maurice Schweitzer, a professor of operations, information and decisions at Penn’s Wharton School, served as Murphy’s research advisor and encourages undergraduates to engage in research because it can reshape their thinking. 

“The research process can take a few years to go from the idea stage to a published article, and Liam was able to get a sense for how the broader research enterprise unfolds,” says Schweitzer. “Not every part of the process is glamorous and exciting. It has tedious parts to it just like any job, but Liam brought with him great energy and enthusiasm.” 

One study that Murphy was a part of examined “pro-social” deception, meaning when lies are told in the interest of helping others. It involved understanding situations in which people would want to be lied to and times when they think it is ethical to lie. 

“Pro-social lies” can include trivial false compliments about someone’s attire, such as, “No, those jeans don’t make you look fat.” They can also include lies in situations of a more serious nature, designed to soften the impact. 

“People say things that aren’t true in an effort to be kind,” Schweitzer says, adding that engaging in deception is critical to getting along with others. 

For his part of the research, Murphy sifted through hundreds of responses about lying, qualitatively coding them and helping to analyze the open-ended responses to determine in which categories they belonged. He saw examples of frivolous lies, parents lying to children and when the act of lying gets the liar ahead in life. 

“I am surprised with how much many people lie and by how readily they want others to lie to them,” Murphy says. “Some people say that it is never right to lie, some others weigh the costs and benefits, but most people say that one should only lie when there is benefit to the target.” 

Another study that Murphy worked on took a look at using humor to influence someone’s perceived status. The research team found that individuals who use humor are frequently viewed as independent, confident and intelligent. 

Murphy says this summer’s experience through PURM has taught him much about the research process and about specific topics in behavioral psychology. 

“Before this, I had never considered how confidence mediates the link between humor and status,” Murphy says. 

Despite how often it occurs within social interactions and as captivating as it is, Schweitzer says that as a research topic, humor has not received the recognition that it warrants in the management literature. 

“Humor is a way to give someone insight into your thinking process,” Schweitzer adds. “If you’re quick-witted, it signals intelligence and competence. It turns out that humor plays an important role in changing people’s perceptions of one’s status.” 

The two studies into business psychology have sweeping implications, Murphy says, and they have the potential to give people more insight into their own actions. He adds that, with further study, researchers can better understand how people approach different situations. 

“Both humor and deception are poorly understood in general, and there's a lot of work to do there,” Murphy says, adding that he hopes researchers at Wharton and elsewhere will continue to build on the research he was a part of this summer. 

Even though his time in PURM was rewarding and his research experience has helped him to think more critically about data and the psychological processes,

Murphy says he has no plans to pursue a research career after he graduates in 2018. 

“It’s a unique work setting and one that I am glad to have been a part of,” he says. “Seeing how studies come together has been a great experience.” 

During the academic year, Murphy is a member of Dischord A Cappella and the Electrical and Systems Engineering Student Advisory Board, and he volunteers to teach children in West Philadelphia how to play musical instruments, including the guitar and piano, through the Penn Music Mentorship Program.