‘Moral Decoupling’: How Consumers Justify Supporting a Tarnished Brand (Time)

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Amit Bhattacharjee, a visiting professor at the Tuck School of Business, is co-author of a paper on “moral decoupling,” which allows consumers to continue championing a public figure despite his or her moral transgressions. Time quotes the authors as saying that “moral decoupling enables individuals to acknowledge that a public figure has engaged in an immoral act, but argue that this act should not influence judgements of performance.”

The authors’ paper, “Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger: How Moral Decoupling Enables Consumers to Admire and Admonish,” was published this month by the online version of Journal of Consumer Research.

Read the full story, published 9/17/12 in Time.

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