It’s a never-ending debate. Are things done to persuade people ethical?
Is marketing work ethical? Is it ethical to use a photo of a woman in a bikini? Are expressive sentences made ethical? Is the website design using the color that your target audience likes ethical? Is it ethical to sell luxury items to someone who doesn’t need them?
Never-ending arguments like this often have two answers.
Yes and no.
Let’s talk from that perspective. I’m trying to make you do something that you don’t know whether you want or not, and whether you need it or not, at any point in your life. And for this, I use various tools. So you are not in focus, I have self-benefit creation. It doesn’t seem ethical at all, does it?
Now let’s look at it from this angle. At any given time in your life, I am offering you something that fits your needs exactly, something you can love, something that is almost certain to benefit you. And again I use the same tools for this. It is clear that this time, I have benefited you. Of course, I also benefited myself, as I finally made money. But the situation looks pretty ethical.
Here we have explained a very complex issue in a very simple way. Because I used the same tools. Only my purpose was different. So let’s summarize it strikingly;
Nothing is ethical if you misuse it.
With a stick, you can save someone who has fallen overboard. You can also injure someone with the same stick just because you don’t like s/he. The blame is not on the stick, it is on your purpose.
Social science topics (tools) like User Experience, Marketing, Neuromarketing were definitely not created to benefit humans. They were created to understand people. Because the better you can understand people, the more customized services you can produce. People also want to feel special. So you can make them happier. Just because you’re giving them a reason to choose you doesn’t mean you’re malicious.
Using such methods is also a way to understand which companies care about their customers in today’s crazy business world, in the chaotic environment where everyone offers everything.
I sat for a long time on either side of the table. In other words, I was in the position of both trying to persuade and trying to be persuaded. Trust me, almost everyone who made me say yes was already deserving of it. This is what you have to do. Use scientific means of persuasion, but be good enough to persuade. May your products and services deserve the positive response you will receive. We can call this flow ethical. Otherwise, make sure you don’t have a sustainable business.
Get it right. Then you will sleep peacefully.
After all, you will never have money printing machines in front of you. You will have friends, friends that you have met or have not met, and perhaps will never meet. Make them feel your friendship. The rest will come automatically.