RESEARCHERS
3 the researchers behind it — Most new real estate agents don't quit because they're bad at the job. They quit because the job is structurally designed to produce feast-or-famine i
Stanford University
Known for:Naming and documenting the fundamental attribution error — the tendency to overweight personal disposition and underweight situational forces when judging others
Key findings
Observers systematically underestimate the impact of situational factors and overestimate the impact of personal disposition when explaining another person's behavior or outcomes — a bias Ross terms the 'fundamental attribution error'. ↗
JPMorgan Chase Institute (founding President and CEO)
Known for:Large-scale research on household income volatility using anonymized transaction data
Key findings
Analyzing millions of anonymized Chase checking accounts, Farrell and Greig found 84% of individuals experienced month-to-month income changes of more than 5%, with a typical middle-income household needing roughly $4,800 in liquid savings to weather the swings but holding only about $3,000. ↗
Following up with six million families' accounts from 2013 to 2018, Farrell, Greig and Yu found families need roughly six weeks of take-home income in liquid assets to weather a typical simultaneous income dip and spending spike, and that more than 60% of families lack that buffer. ↗
Curtin University
Known for:The first dedicated empirical study of burnout among residential real estate brokers, linking job structure to emotional exhaustion
Key findings
Surveying 305 real estate brokers in Western Australia, Love, Goh and Hogg found emotional exhaustion was associated with longer working hours and lower 'sense of coherence', while the job's commission-only pay, high autonomy, and constant interpersonal client contact functioned as a distinct occupational stressor. ↗