"We will examine issues in a real-world setting such as how people decide on what film to rent, whether time frames such as the length of rental affect what type of movie they decide to rent, and whether ‘lowbrow’ or ‘highbrow’ films will top customers’ play lists," said Harvard Business School Professor Anita Elberse, who is co-heading the project.

"We also will look at the issue of choice, and test whether having access to a wider variety of movies, TV series and documentaries will mean we choose mainstream movies less often."

Talk about pressure. As if it wasn't hard enough to find a movie to please the whole family, now you've got to worry if some Harvard egghead is looking down their nose at you because you've hired Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol fifteen times but you've never watched Citizen Kane.

Maybe you could hire a few French arthouse movies, but never actually watch them, just to balance out your love of Swedish "arthouse" movies.

So if you're hiring a movie online, choose wisely. Your reputation depends on it.{moscomment}