I once wore a Tee-shirt on a university campus, with the text “If you say it really slowly, the word gullible sounds like oranges”. About every fifth student, who walked past, started to mouth the word gullible. No doubt many of them are now rising stars in the corporate world.

If that is the case, I wonder, are they still as receptive to uncritical thinking? If so, according to a fascinating study by Cornell University researcher Shane Littrell [1] this is potentially problematic both for them and their organisations. Littrell defines Corporate B.S as:

“a semantically empty and often confusing style of communication in organizational contexts that leverages abstruse corporate buzzwords and jargon in a functionally misleading way…. B.S receptivity refers to a person’s tendency to evaluate B.S in an inflated, positive way, such as finding it especially profound, important, informative, etc.”

An article in the Cornell Chronicle describes Littrell’s conclusions: “workers who were more susceptible to corporate BS rated their supervisors as more charismatic and ‘visionary’, but also displayed lower scores on a portion of the study that tested analytic thinking, cognitive reflection and fluid intelligence.

Those more receptive to corporate BS also scored significantly worse on a test of effective workplace decision-making. The study found that being more receptive to corporate B.S was also positively linked to job satisfaction and feeling inspired by company mission statements. Moreover, those who were more likely to fall for corporate BS were also more likely to spread it… Essentially, the employees most excited and inspired by “visionary” corporate jargon may be the least equipped to make effective, practical business decisions for their companies.”

A study I conducted some years ago posed the question, “If HR talent management approaches work, how come the wrong people so often rise to the top?” Littrell may just have answered the question!

[1] The Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale: Development, validations and associations with workplace outcomes, Personality and Individual Differences,  vol 255, June 2026

©️David Clutterbuck, 2026