Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • May 2013
  • Article
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Sweatshop Labor Is Wrong Unless the Shoes Are Cute: Cognition Can Both Hurt and Help Motivated Moral Reasoning

By: Neeru Paharia, Kathleen Vohs and Rohit Deshpandé
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

The present research investigated the dual role of cognition as either an enabler of moral reasoning or self-interested motivated reasoning for endorsing sweatshop labor. Experiment 1A showed motivated reasoning: participants were more likely to endorse the use of sweatshop labor when considering a Caribbean vacation with questionable labor practices for themselves than for their friends. Experiment 1B demonstrated that endorsement of sweatshop labor mediated the relationship between product desirability and purchase intention. Experiment 2 found that cognitive resources were recruited to enhance motivated reasoning regarding sweatshop labor, the latter of which was reduced under cognitive load. Experiments 3A and 3B found that when cognitive resources were specifically directed in a comparative joint evaluation, participants offered harsher views on the ethicality of a favored company, and were less influenced by motivated factors than when under separate evaluations.

Keywords

Moral Sensibility; Motivation and Incentives; Working Conditions; Cognition and Thinking

Citation

Paharia, Neeru, Kathleen Vohs, and Rohit Deshpandé. "Sweatshop Labor Is Wrong Unless the Shoes Are Cute: Cognition Can Both Hurt and Help Motivated Moral Reasoning." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 121, no. 1 (May 2013): 81–88.
  • Find it at Harvard

About The Author

Rohit Deshpande

Marketing
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • August 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship

    By: Rohit Deshpandé
    • September 2021
    • Faculty Research

    Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Art of the Entrepreneur (B)

    By: Rohit Deshpandé and Henry McGee
    • September 2021
    • Faculty Research

    Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Art of the Entrepreneur

    By: Rohit Deshpandé and Henry McGee
More from the Authors
  • Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship By: Rohit Deshpandé
  • Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Art of the Entrepreneur (B) By: Rohit Deshpandé and Henry McGee
  • Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Art of the Entrepreneur By: Rohit Deshpandé and Henry McGee
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College