Bias Benevolence
Charity is said to begin at home, but it might be more accurate to say that it begins with a sale. It’s often at the point of purchase that a consumer finds it easiest to behave benevolently. Can we say the same about the end? Do we care as much about who dismantles our electronics, processes our waste, or recycles our plastic? Or do we find our charities surrendered to a consumption cycle like everything else.
By purchasing something, they can endorse themes like better working conditions, or healthier growing methods for food, or sustainable material usage or thousands of other well-deserving issues. These issues are communicated to them expertly using sophisticated marketing techniques. Many of these techniques have been established for decades, some even for centuries, and have been very successful at changing behaviours in the consumer, in businesses, in government and in international trade.
Examining this issue isn’t intended to criticise the good intentions of people and organisations who are trying to improve the world. They have certainly made the world a better place. But it is to question objectively whether we focus overly much on improving the on-boarding and purchase experience, while the ending, and ultimate consequence of consumption is overlooked. It might demonstrate just how deeply the bias of starting a consumer experience overshadows the proper and responsible ending of one.
The on-boarding experience incorporates a significant quantity of persuasion tools with branding and marketing. These locate the benevolent cause in the context of a consumer experience. The consumer experience has been developed over decades. It has established behaviours that limit interest and responsibility past product usage and rarely live onto the off- boarding experience.
We can define these in to two areas, one is an ascending trajectory towards the consumer. This is well organised and persuasive. The other is a descending trajectory away from the consumer. Which is chaotic, overlooked and emotionally repulsive.
