![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-1189303812-e1774982759121.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve all been there: in a work meeting, trying to stop our eyes from glazing over as a colleague spews an endless monologue about \u201cleveraging the company\u2019s adaptive strategy to optimize our value and reinvigorate our operations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That incomprehensible, buzzword-heavy language has a name: \u201ccorporate bulls\u2013t.\u201d That\u2019s at least according to Shane Littrell, a cognitive psychologist and a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University. He studies how people evaluate and share knowledge, and how misleading information shapes people\u2019s beliefs, attitudes, and decision-making. \u00a0<\/p>\n
As a self-proclaimed BS-hater himself, Littrell defines BS as \u201cdubious information that is misleadingly impressive, important, informative, or otherwise engaging.\u201d It\u2019s easy to mistake BS for the necessary, everyday jargon used in professional settings, but its distinguishing factor is that while the language intends to sound smart or impressive, it fails to be accurate, meaningful, or if at all, helpful, he told Fortune.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over four studies with 1018 subjects, Littrell built the \u201cCorporate Bulls\u2013t Receptivity Scale,\u201d a way to measure how attracted individuals are to this type of language and how business savvy they perceive different statements. People who find that buzzword-heavy corporate-speak profound and informative perform worse on measures of workplace leadership and decision-making, but it does not mean people who are more receptive to corporate-speak are bad at their jobs, just that they may not make the best leaders or decision-makers.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not about intelligence or education, Littrell said, who noted the results were uniform between studies where more than 70% of the participants had a bachelor\u2019s degree or higher and those with less education.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of that has to do with just the environment that you\u2019re in. You have to use that language a little bit just to navigate the workspace,\u201d he said. \u201cAnybody can fall for bulls\u2013t when it\u2019s packaged up to appeal to your biases.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The dangers of meaningless corporate-speak\u00a0<\/p>\n
The workplace is \u201cfertile ground\u201d for BS to fester, Littrell said, when you\u2019re trying to impress your boss and compete with colleagues.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese organizational settings are saturated with these authority cues, like job titles, and these power hierarchy structures, and everybody [is] talking about their leadership vision,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt makes it especially easy to pass that off as insight. There are always people that are trying to climb the corporate ladder, and in a lot of situations, this type of language is used in a way to try to impress everyone around them.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But corporate BS is more than just annoying, Littrell said. It can have a harmful effect on credibility and morale. This can be especially troubling when a leader uses it because it can undermine how employees understand goals, feedback, or decision-making.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Corporate-speak can also lead to reputational damage and financial cost for companies, Littrell said. He gave the example of a snafu PepsiCo found itself in 2008 after an internal report explaining the company\u2019s $1 million logo redesign leaked online.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Pepsi DNA finds its origin in the dynamic of perimeter oscillations. This new identity manifests itself in an authentic geometry that is to become proprietary to the Pepsi culture,\u201d the company\u2019s design consultant, Peter Arnell Group, wrote in the internal report. \u201c[The Pepsi Proposition is the] establishment of a gravitational pull to shift from a \u2018transactional\u2019 experience to an \u2018invitational\u2019 expression.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This proposal was not only confusing, but also created a lasting internet and media embarrassment for the company. Even the design firm\u2019s founder admitted that \u201cit was all bulls\u2013t.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Establishing new norms can stop BS<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t have to be this way, Littrell said. A simple way companies can reverse course is by rewarding \u201canti-bulls\u2013t\u201d behavior by making clear communication the norm from the top down. This can stop a cycle where a leader uses convoluted language, and then employees feel like they have to speak that way, too.<\/p>\n
He suggests establishing an environment that encourages people who aren\u2019t the leaders to ask more questions, which can nip the impulse to appear like you know everything. \u201cSometimes people feel a social pressure where they don\u2019t want to look stupid by answering like they think everybody else understands it, and they don\u2019t want to raise their hand and ask a question, because they feel that that might make them look stupid,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lastly, he encourages companies to reward behaviors like clear communication and asking questions in performance reviews, which he says are very critical for establishing expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the more important conversations is those performance reviews and the way leaders and employees communicate with each other that can cause the most problems, especially in their personal success and the organization\u2019s success.\u201d<\/p>\n
#Liking #corporate #sign #youre #bad #decisionmaking #Cornell #expert #finds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019ve all been there: in a work meeting, trying to stop our eyes from glazing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[245],"tags":[1223,3245,2821,6521,1806,1998,2823,6520,240,536,6519,5842,3233,6518,617],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2814\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}