Ethics GS Paper IV (Applied Ethics) by Manoj K Jha Sir

Model Answer

Question #1. Do you think social influence is a long lasting solution to align the action of the public for a cause? Discuss comparing the effectiveness of social influence serving manufactured interest of influencer

Approach

• Introduce Social influence and why people get influenced?
• Discuss with example whether you agree that social influence brings long term changes or not?
• What are the manufactured interests of individuals?
• How these interests influence the society?
• Conclude 

Hints

Social influence comprises the ways in which individuals change their behaviour to meet the demands of a social environment. It takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peerpressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing. Typically social influence results from a specific action, command, or request, but people also alter their attitudes and behaviours in response to what they perceive others might do or think. 

People will be more open to things that they see others doing. For example, seeing others compost their organic waste after finishing a meal may influence the subject to do so as well. Specifically, social influence is the way in which individuals change their ideas and actions to meet the demands of a social group, perceived authority, social role or a minority within a group wielding influence over the majority.

Social influence tries to change the perception of people towards the subject but this change is not necessary to be long lasting. As, at the time of election political parties and candidates make promises via their manifesto and make promises by capturing the emotions of the population. But this effect does not last for longer duration as people get disenchanted by the false promises made by the politicians and in next election try to get the new leaders who can fulfil their aspirations.

Similarly, Market representatives are very well apt in capturing the imagination of customers and persuade them in selling their products. But, this does not keep the interest of customer for a longer time period. As the interest of the customers get changed with time and with the availability of more products in the market. 

Influencers also inspire the people for changing the status quo or in bringing reforms, but the impact may not have long lasting results as people may have a short duration inspiration which may phased out after a certain period of time. During the Anna hazare protests a score of number people joined him during the protest and a huge level of enthusiasm was observed among people. But if we see the results of that protest today, we may say that Anna Hazare’s moment was successful in influencing people momentarily. Administration is still struggling with the appointment of lokpal and lokayuktas. Corruption still persists. We may say that social influence can inspire people to do when they are self-inspired, in the absence of which influence may get vanished.

In terms of self-manufactured interest of individuals, the influencer may get people to turn towards a certain ideology, personal ambitions, economic gains, political gains, ego satisfaction, psychological influenced traits etc. An influencer uses persuasion, power, emotional intelligence, pity etc to influence people for the desired outcome. For example, Hitler used the nationalism, to persuade people to fulfil his political ambitions. He inculcated the ideology of race superiority and sense of envy in the population against the allies. The interest based manufactured influence did survive during the reign to Hitler but could not last long as they were considered as unethical and condemned by the people and other nations alike. In the case of financial crisis in 2008, the manufactured interest of Lehman Brothers persuaded people to for higher returns for which people responded with huge invest. But after the fall of the false promises and downturn of economic situation people and even governments changed the policies for investment. This way the manufactured interest did survive through only a shorter social influence rather than a persistent impact.

Social influence involves intentional and unintentional efforts to change another person's beliefs, attitudes, or behaviour. The trustworthiness, desire to change, helping attitude, knowledge, rationality and timely interventions of an influencer are the basic virtues which tend to impact the thought process of individuals. Social influence becomes instant if they are failed to bring positive changes through concrete actions such as laws, acts and changes in administration or system in which people live.

Question #2. What do you understand by ethics in economics? How does the market persuade the customers in the era of consumerism?

Approach

• Discuss ethics in economies.
• Methods of persuasion and ethics associated with them.
• Conclude

Hints

Should people be allowed to buy medicines without doctors’ prescriptions? Should minimum wages be imposed to promote greater equality of income distribution? And, are there moral limits on the extent to which the market should be allowed to determine the allocation of resources between different people and activities?Furthermore, should policies be designed primarily to increase people's happiness rather than their incomes?  How do the physical market and e-markets protect the rights of consumers? The freedom from liability for those who caused the crisis and subsequent globalization that favours corporations and the wealthiest 1% contribute to the public’s cynicism. All such questions raise ethical considerations in economies. 

The ethics in economies is related to every possible dimension of the economy which includes the micro-economies, macro-economies, formal economies, informal economies, economic policymakers, legislatures and administration of economies, etc. sweatshop labor, the sale of human organs, efficiency, and equity in health care, the meaning of justice, the morality of markets and the moral limitations of markets.  While talking about ethical concerns concerning the persuasion of consumers, there are several ways in which the market attracts people to trust them and buy their products.

Methods of persuasion

Advertisement: Companies and brands make huge investments in advertisements as they are one of the direct methods of influencing people’s choices. The advertisements generate awareness related to the product and create a desire to buy it. For instance, the pictorial representation in food plazas stimulates the salivary glands and raises the temptation to buy eatables. Though the advertisement is a method of effective reach, high budget advertisement can be unethical in such forms as they may market for a substandard product, misinform people, cause unnecessary consumer tendencies, unhealthy and promote differences.

Delivery methods: The quick and easy home delivery of products has increased the consumption of products. The doorstep and single-click-away services of Flipkart, Amazon, Swiggy, and Zomato have influenced consumer tendencies at a huge level. On one hand, this has increased the ease but this also carries ethical questions as this may cause inconvenience as consumers may get wrong products, face trouble regarding return policies, delays in delivery methods, sub-standardization of product quality, etc. 

Influencers: Brands have made a social impact by including influencers that include celebrities, activists, and renowned personalities to endorse their products. Influencers increased the face value of the product by having a direct impact on the audience. This raises ethical concerns as most of the influencers just do it for economic gains. They might not use the product even once but the endorsement of the product instills a sense of trust in individuals.

Psychological and Demographic analytics: By using big-data, companies get to know about the consumer tendencies and preferences of the population. Consumer analytics also study the demography of the population to get to know the age structure for targeting them. This raises concerns regarding the information availability of all the products to an individual. The targeting of demography deprives a certain section who is unable to buy or does not come under that varied category.

Designing: In terms of Internet commerce, persuasion marketing includes how a web page is designed. This applies human psychology to web design which focuses on the part of the decision-making process that’s not consciously controlled. Elements such as layout, copy, and typography, combined with the right promotional messages, encourage website visitors to follow pre-planned pathways on the website and take specific actions, rather than giving them free rein of choice in how they interact with the website.

Pricing and Sales: Competition and consumerism have helped in lowering the prices of the products. Big companies offer seasonal and other sales on their products which increases the buying tendencies of individuals. This causes unethical practice by increasing unethical marketing and competitive tendencies between companies.

Conclusion

Ethical economies seek to promote honesty, fairness, and responsibility in all spheres. If a company makes an effort to advertise more ethically, it reflects positively on every area of that business. The concept of welfare economics can be very helpful in reducing transaction costs, enhances productivity, and creates the social capital that lubricates exchange.