Importance

It is easy to understand, therefore, the reason that ethics are so important to the topic of persuasion. Persuasion can range from something as simple as reminding your child that they can have dessert if they finish their dinner, all the way to a cult leader convincing someone to kill themselves or another. Some people are naturally gifted in persuasion while others seem to lack totally any ability to manipulate another person. Although the importance of honesty can never be overstated and is indeed a value that virtually everyone would agree is important, persuasion does not have to be unethical or immoral; in fact, using persuasive techniques is often amoral or can even be positive and important. Consider the following situations.

• You are in a work meeting where someone suggests to your boss that you could sell an inferior product for the same amount of money. Would it be immoral for you to persuade your boss not to make this change? Most people would argue that the ethical thing to do would be to convince your boss not to make this change (although it may not be the best business decision for you to do so). If the company is struggling financially and the changes to the product are not harmful, is it then still unethical to say silent? If the inferior product poses virtually no risk of harm to people purchasing the item and the company will go bankrupt if they do not make this change, is it then still ethical to convince your boss not to do it, or is it more ethical to try to persuade your boss to make the changes to save the company?


• You are a politician, running for the U.S. House of Representatives. You are challenging the incumbent for your area and going door to door in certain neighborhoods where your support is particularly low. You truly and deeply believe that you will be a better representative for the area than your opponent. However, the neighborhoods where you are currently visiting are more likely not to agree with you about a particular topic. When visiting those households, do you try to persuade them by talking about only the issues that you think they will agree with you on? If someone asks you about the topic, do you give him or her the runaround rather than explicitly answer his or her question? Do you tell them only what they want to hear? Do your answers to any of these questions change if you believe that other people in your area will suffer if the incumbent stays in office?

• You are an attorney; specifically, you are working as a prosecutor in a murder trial. You discover that the person you are prosecuting is innocent, but your supervisor knows that you can win the case and wants you to continue the prosecution. Should you convince your boss not to prosecute? Let us say that your boss refuses to cease the prosecution. Do you work as hard as you normally would to convict that defendant? What if you find out that although the defendant did not commit that murder, he had committed several others, now is it still okay to prosecute him? What if this is the case and you find out that the person who did commit this murder has died and cannot hurt anyone else; do you do your best to persuade the jury that the defendant is guilty?