Dive Brief:
- Employees who use “impressive-but-empty organizational rhetoric” may struggle with analytic thinking, cognitive reflection and fluid intelligence, according to a Cornell University study by cognitive psychologist Shane Littrell published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
- In his research, Littrell introduced what he called the "Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale," a tool designed to measure susceptibility to vague corporate-speak such as “synergistic leadership,” or “growth-hacking paradigms,” per a press release. His study found that employees who were more receptive to what his scale considers “corporate BS” scored “significantly worse on a test of effective workplace decision-making” than their peers.
- When corporate jargon is already commonplace in an office, it’s easy for ambitious employees to use it to seem more competent or accomplished, thus accelerating their career growth, Littrell said — creating a negative feedback loop.
Dive Insight:
The workplace is not the only environment where people share dubious information that is misleadingly impressive, Cornell said — but workplaces may structurally protect it by accident; workers who fell for such language “were also more likely to spread it,” per the press release.
“Corporate bullshit is a specific style of communication that uses confusing, abstract buzzwords in a functionally misleading way,” Littrell, a postdoctoral researcher in Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences, said. “Unlike technical jargon, which can sometimes make office communication a little easier,” this type of language “confuses rather than clarifies. It may sound impressive, but it is semantically empty.”
To test his theory, Littrell created a tool that produced impressive-sounding but meaningless sentences such as, "We will actualize a renewed level of cradle-to-grave credentialing” and “By getting our friends in the tent with our best practices, we will pressure-test a renewed level of adaptive coherence.”
He then surveyed more than 1,000 office workers regarding the “business savvy” of those statements alongside real quotes from Fortune 500 leaders, per the report. Littrell then used established cognitive tests to connect receptivity to the language and analytic thinking skills.
The study concluded that employees who were the most excited and inspired by what he called “visionary” corporate jargon were potentially the “least equipped to make effective, practical business decisions for their companies." In addition, workers who were more susceptible to empty rhetoric also rated their supervisors as more charismatic and “visionary,” per the report.
“This creates a concerning cycle,” Littrell said. “Employees who are more likely to fall for corporate bullshit may help elevate the types of dysfunctional leaders who are more likely to use it, creating a sort of negative feedback loop. Rather than a ‘rising tide lifting all boats,’ a higher level of corporate BS in an organization acts more like a clogged toilet of inefficiency.”
A 2025 study from Express Employment Professionals–Harris Poll revealed that clear communication from senior leadership was an important factor toward alleviating some workers’ worries about job security, with more than 4 in 10 workers saying as much.
Additionally, addressing poor communication, a lack of transparency and problematic managerial actions can help address employee disengagement, according to a 2025 report focused on women in the workplace from the Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership.
