The expectations management literature has so far focused on firms meeting the analyst consensus forecast — the expectations of analysts as a group — at earnings announcements. In this study we argue that investors may use individual analyst forecasts as additional benchmarks in evaluating...

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we capture neural activity in the ventral striatum — a key area in the human brain's reward processing circuit — of 35 adult investors learning the earnings per share disclosed by 60 publicly traded companies. Before imaging, investors forecasted...