Cornell Video

Simone Tang’s research examines the way people make moral judgments of organizations by studying different frameworks of perspective. Her findings show that, if we consider the organization as a collective or a brand, we are more likely to judge it critically when something goes wrong. Conversely, when we consider that organization in terms of the individual people who own or operate it, we are more likely to have compassion or forgiveness for its mistakes. The consequences of this can be political, social, legal, and economic; for instance, when an organization has a more diverse workforce, people are more likely to humanize it.