SIGIA-L Mail Archives: Re: SIGIA-L: donation gravity ... IA eth
Re: SIGIA-L: donation gravity ... IA ethics?
From: Steve Portigal (steve_at_portigal.com)
Date: Mon Oct 01 2001 - 13:32:37 EDT
> >Side note: Amazon has the suggested donation amount set at $10. I don't
> >know if it is too much or too little. Or just right. Again, this is
> >something that will require investigation in future research.
>
>It then occurred to me that they could have set the suggested donation to
>the recent average donation (and make it clear that's what it is), which
>would be a to leverage donation gravity via social implications ... after
>all, who wants to think/feel that they are donating less than others.
>
>Then it occured to me -- what are the ethical implications in this?
>Shouldn't people donate just what they can and want to, without feeling
>pressured to conform to others?
This is a great one for BJ Fogg and his team at the Stanford
captology lab http://www-pcd.stanford.edu/captology/ - the use
of technology to persuade.
If Amazon can do things to make you buy more ("other shoppers
who bought the book you just bought also bought X, Y, and Q")
why is this difference? Is donating a fundamentally different
transaction than purchase (I'd say yes)? What is the meaning of
donating via an e-commerce site? Are people making donations
and purchases in the same session?
You might be interested in www.influenceatwork.com, the work
of Robert Cialdini - the science of persuasion.
I think "ethics" is such a subjective issue, I'm reluctant to offer too
much of my own personal biases on the matter...
Steve
--
steve_at_portigal.com http://www.portigal.com
Customer research --> implications for design, product, marketing, strategy...
Read FreshMeat, my email column: http://www.portigal.com/FreshMeat.htm
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