Jargon-lovers are worse at their jobs, say boffins

"Researchers from Cornell University have developed what they call 'the Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale,' a tool designed to measure how impressed people are by business school-style jargon that sounds strategic but says very little. The findings suggest that employees who rate this sort of language as insightful are more likely to struggle with analytical thinking and workplace decision-making."

"People who scored higher on the Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale tended to perform worse on tests measuring analytical thinking, cognitive reflection, and fluid intelligence. They also made poorer judgments in workplace decision-making scenarios designed to mimic common business problems."

"To build the scale, researchers ran four studies involving more than 1,000 working adults in the US and Canada. Participants were shown a mix of genuine corporate statements and nonsense lines generated by what the researchers call a 'corporate bullshit generator' - effectively a tool that mashes together buzzwords into sentences that sound like they came straight out of a quarterly strategy meeting."

Cornell University researchers developed the Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale to measure how impressed people are by meaningless business jargon. Through four studies involving over 1,000 working adults in the US and Canada, participants rated genuine corporate statements alongside nonsensical phrases generated by a corporate bullshit generator. Results showed that employees who rated vague, buzzword-filled language as insightful performed worse on analytical thinking tests, cognitive reflection assessments, and fluid intelligence measures. These individuals also demonstrated poorer judgment in workplace decision-making scenarios. The research suggests that susceptibility to corporate word salad correlates with reduced critical thinking abilities and weaker professional performance.

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