‘Let's call a spade a spade, not a gardening tool’: How euphemisms shape moral judgement in corporate social responsibility domains - INRAE - Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement
Article Dans Une Revue Journal of Business Research Année : 2021

‘Let's call a spade a spade, not a gardening tool’: How euphemisms shape moral judgement in corporate social responsibility domains

Katherine Farrow
  • Fonction : Auteur
Naoufel Mzoughi
Connectez-vous pour contacter l'auteur

Résumé

Many organizations, especially businesses, make heavy use of euphemisms when communicating on sensitive issues. We explore whether the use of euphemisms, as opposed to equivalent plain terms, influences the moral judgments made by recipients of these messages, notably pertaining to (un)ethical behaviors in corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Using six ethical and unethical scenarios in a between-subjects experiment, we find four main results. First, individuals judge ethical actions more favorably when they are presented in euphemistic terms versus in plain terms. Second, euphemisms increase the acceptability of unethical CSR practices, which are judged to be significantly less unethical when described using euphemistic terms relative to plain terms. Third, most examined euphemisms are found to increase (respectively, decrease) the likelihood of stated willingness to sign a petition supporting (respectively, denouncing) the considered practices. Fourth, euphemisms remain effective for respondents who view firms as hypocritical.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
S0148296321002381.pdf (309.28 Ko) Télécharger le fichier
Origine Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)

Dates et versions

hal-03351278 , version 1 (24-04-2023)

Licence

Identifiants

Citer

Katherine Farrow, Gilles Grolleau, Naoufel Mzoughi. ‘Let's call a spade a spade, not a gardening tool’: How euphemisms shape moral judgement in corporate social responsibility domains. Journal of Business Research, 2021, 131, pp.254-267. ⟨10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.04.002⟩. ⟨hal-03351278⟩
86 Consultations
57 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

More