Google's informal corporate motto is "Don't be evil." When some corporations indeed "do evil," this motto might favorably set the brand Google apart from competitors and other companies. However, I question the value of the logo from the perspective of social and personality psychology. People generally have two basic psychological dispositions: to avoid negative feelings and negative outcomes such as evil, and to approach positive feelings and outcomes such as good or love.
According to regulatory focus theory, people are either prevention oriented or promotion oriented. Prevention oriented people try to prevent or avoid losses and negative outcomes; promotion oriented people try to promote or approach gains and positive outcomes, including growth. This research has demonstrated that a prevention orientation causes the agitation spectrum of feelings, which includes calmness, relaxation, agitation, nervousness, anxiety and fear. The research also demonstrates that a promotion orientation is associated with the dejection spectrum of feelings, which includes sadness, disappointment, joy, enthusiasm, cheerfulness, and even love. Further, the negative agitation-related feelings, such as fear and anxiety, are significantly more intense than the negative dejection-related feelings, such as sadness and disappointment. In other words, anxiety feels worse than sadness does.
The research on regulatory focus also finds that the positive dejection-related feelings, such as cheerfulness, joy, and love, are more intense than the positive agitation-related feelings, such as calm and relief. In other words, joy and cheerfulness feel better than relief and calm. Overall, a promotion-oriented is strongly associated with better emotional outcomes than a prevention-orientation, and is also associated with more effective problem-solving, growth, and exercise of creativity.
From this perspective, Google's "Don't be evil" slogan is decidedly prevention-oriented and may motivate Google's employees to avoid losses, negative feelings, and immoral actions. This is a worthwhile effort on the part of the company because the motto may serve as a highly visible and influential form of internal marketing, in the form of a higher-level goal. Examples of internal marketing which may be affected by the motto are efforts geared toward knowledge and skill development, alignment of employee and organizational goals, motivation and empowerment, and ensuring a positive customer experience. Because the motto influences people to avoid negative outcomes, actions, and potential losses, the best feelings which employees may attain are calm and relief. Thus, Google and its employees may sometimes be missing out on all of the documented benefits of positive feelings such as cheerfulness, joy, and enthusiasm: enhanced creativity and problem-solving abilities, growth, a sense of purpose, more determined goal-striving, more open-minded critical thinking, improved recognition of opportunities, more calculated and responsible risk-taking behaviors, and increased job satisfaction.
What then might Google do? Maybe a new informal motto such as "Be good" would be an improvement. This motto emphasizes the approach of virtue rather than the avoidance of vice. By instituting an approach-oriented slogan, Google may actually improve employee and corporate performance over the long-term. Further, a promotion-oriented slogan, such as "Be Good" may encourage employees to adopt and pursue learning, mastery, and compassionate goals (the last being goals which are directed to helping others, such as co-workers and customers), all of which are associated with less psychological distress and more satisfaction and happiness. This in turn may help make a positive corporate culture even stronger.
