I love bringing in psychologists and behavioral scientists to look at why we do what we do. This week’s topic is a big one: hypocrisy.
It seems everyone is obsessed with hypocrisy, including my students. I hear the word ‘performative’ in class several times a week. I feel that hypocrisy is seen as a bigger sin than having the ‘wrong’ opinions in the first place. So, we desperately need a thoughtful and informed conversation about the topic.
I first met Dr. Michael Hallsworth when I was running Ethical Systems, a think tank focused on applying the best ideas from behavioral science to corporate practice. Michael has a deep background here in his role at the Behavioral Insights Team, so we collaborated.
Michael’s book, The Hypocrisy Trap: How Changing What We Criticize Can Improve Lives looks at hypocrisy, saying you stand for something but doing another, is quite common at both individual and corporate levels, and that we need a more informed and thoughtful way of approaching the topic.
I was delighted to be quoted in the chapter on corporate hypocrisy, where we explore the human tendency to personify corporations, and the challenges that perceptions of hypocrisy create for anyone running a business. Here’s a sample:
A frail, elderly woman named Joan lies confined on her bed. She used to garden and still cherishes her lawn, so she’s hired John, who lives nearby, to maintain it. He talks smoothly but never lifts a finger. He just pockets the cash, knowing that Jane can’t check his work.
A shameful act. But would you feel differently if Jane had been deceived by a well-known professional lawn care company instead? To answer this question, a study scanned the brains of people as they heard about three scenarios: about a person, a company, and about the workings of a neutral object - like a lawnmower.
It turned out that their brains responded in a ‘strikingly similar’ way to actions by people and corporations. The area of the brain concerned with “seeing people” was active for both, but not for the description of objects (like the lawnmower). That wasn’t a foregone conclusion: other studies show that this area of the brain becomes less active when we see pictures of excluded and dehumanized groups, like drug addicts or homeless people. But not for companies.
Other studies agree: we judge the hypocrisy of companies along the same pathways as those we use for people. In the words of Alison Taylor, a Professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, “We personify companies. We talk about them as if they’re people with brains. We talk about Apple versus Microsoft and Pepsi versus Coke, and whether a company is a hypocrite.”
In this conversation, Michael and I give concrete examples for corporations about what they can be doing to avoid hypocrisy (hint: admit that things are a bit messy!) and also what we as consumers can do to give space to corporations to catch up to their statements and align their values and actions (if that isn’t well-timed for the holidays, I don’t know what is!).
Enjoy! And consider this a recommended holiday long read.
