Connotations/euphemisms get discussed in moral psychology, often under the headings moral disengagement, dehumanization, and construal. One example I recall hearing is that people would be more willing to cheat on a test if it’s thought of as “peeking at my neighbor’s paper” (although searching for this, it looks like it’s not from a study, just a hypothetical example in a Trope & Lieberman article%20Temporal%20Construal.pdf)).
What I’ve seen of the moral disengagement literature mostly involves theorizing and correlational studies using personality measures, rather than experimental studies (e.g. Bandura et al., 1996). I did come across one experimental study on dehumanization, which finds that people give more electric shock to other people who have been called “animals” (described here), although it’s not a very well-controlled study.
Connotations/euphemisms get discussed in moral psychology, often under the headings moral disengagement, dehumanization, and construal. One example I recall hearing is that people would be more willing to cheat on a test if it’s thought of as “peeking at my neighbor’s paper” (although searching for this, it looks like it’s not from a study, just a hypothetical example in a Trope & Lieberman article%20Temporal%20Construal.pdf)).
What I’ve seen of the moral disengagement literature mostly involves theorizing and correlational studies using personality measures, rather than experimental studies (e.g. Bandura et al., 1996). I did come across one experimental study on dehumanization, which finds that people give more electric shock to other people who have been called “animals” (described here), although it’s not a very well-controlled study.