Yuyu Chen
Yuyu Chen is a professor of economics at the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, and the second author of the 2009 American Economic Review paper, with Hongbin Cai and Hanming Fang, that put a randomised plaque on restaurant tables in Beijing. Diners shown the five most popular dishes ordered those dishes 13 to 20 per cent more often, and diners shown only the names of some dishes did not.
Who they are
Chen is listed at the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions as Professor of Economics at the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, a former director of the university's Institute of Economic Policy Research, and a Skyline Scholar there for 2025 to 2026. She holds a PhD in Economics from the Australian National University.
The same listing gives her research fields as the labour market, productivity, health, pollution, media impacts and management practices. The restaurant paper came from economists working on how people learn from what others do.
At the time of publication the journal record placed her and Cai at the Guanghua School of Management and Fang at Duke University. The three authors are listed in that order, Cai first.
Key papers
Cai, Chen and Fang (2009), Observational Learning: Evidence from a Randomized Natural Field Experiment, American Economic Review 99(3), 864-882, doi:10.1257/aer.99.3.864.* The experiment was run in a restaurant, and its stated purpose was to separate two things that look alike in the data: diners learning from what others chose, and diners simply noticing a dish because a sign pointed at it. Showing diners the five most popular dishes raised demand for those dishes by about 13 to 20 per cent. Showing them the names of some sample dishes, with no ranking, produced no significant effect. The abstract also reports modest evidence that the effect was stronger among infrequent customers, and that dining satisfaction rose when diners saw the top-five ranking but not when they saw only sample names.
Chen's other work, on the fields listed above, is not drawn on by the article that cites her, and this page does not summarise it.
Key ideas
The design included a sample-dish arm, in which diners saw dish names without a ranking, alongside the arm in which they saw the five most popular dishes. Naming dishes without a ranking did not move demand.
The abstract reports modest evidence that the effect was stronger among infrequent customers. In Robert Cialdini's account of social proof, uncertainty is the first of three conditions under which it works best.
The abstract also reports that dining satisfaction rose when diners saw the top-five ranking but not when they saw only sample names.
Sources
- Cai, H., Chen, Y., & Fang, H. (2009). "Observational Learning: Evidence from a Randomized Natural Field Experiment." American Economic Review, 99(3), 864-882. doi:10.1257/aer.99.3.864. Author order and affiliations at the time of publication from the journal record.
- Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions, faculty listing for Yuyu Chen: current position, former directorship, research fields and degree.
- Cialdini, R. B. (2021). Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion. New York: Harper Business, for the three conditions under which social proof works best.