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The Deception Spiral: Corporate Obfuscation Leads to Perceptions of Immorality and Cheating Behavior

Journal of Language and Social Psychology, ISSN: 1552-6526, Vol: 40, Issue: 2, Page: 277-296
2021
  • 16
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 40
    Captures
  • 24
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    16
    • Citation Indexes
      16
  • Captures
    40
  • Mentions
    24
    • News Mentions
      22
      • News
        22
    • Blog Mentions
      2
      • Blog
        2

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Article Description

In four studies, we evaluated how corporate misconduct relates to language patterns, perceptions of immorality, and unethical behavior. First, we analyzed nearly 190 codes of conduct from S&P 500 manufacturing companies and observed that corporations with ethics infractions had more linguistically obfuscated codes than corporations without ethics infractions. Next, we tested perceptions of a company based on values statements modified by obfuscation (Study 2). Participants perceived low-obfuscation companies as more moral, warmer, and more trustworthy than high-obfuscation companies. Finally, behavioral experiments (Studies 3a and 3b) revealed that group members cheat more after reading a high-obfuscation values statement than a low-obfuscation values statement. The results provide evidence of a potentially troublesome cycle: corporate unethicality has linguistic traces, can affect how people appraise a company, and can change ethical behavior.

Bibliographic Details

David M. Markowitz; Maryam Kouchaki; Jeffrey T. Hancock; Francesca Gino

SAGE Publications

Psychology; Social Sciences; Arts and Humanities

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