The Fact
Yes. In experiments with 1,906 U.S. participants, replacing a disagreeable term with a semantically related agreeable term changed evaluations of the described action. For example, euphemistic wording produced more favorable judgments without participants necessarily viewing the wording as dishonest.
What This Means
Word choice can change moral evaluation even when the underlying act has not changed.
Sources
- Walker, A. C., et al. (2021). “Controlling the narrative: Euphemistic language affects judgments of actions while avoiding perceptions of dishonesty.” Cognition 211:104633. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104633