There is a wealth of new research about our increasing narcissism and the great divide between the good people we believe ourselves to be, and the irresponsible ways we behave. Most of us claim to care about the environment, but we continue to make choices that are environmentally destructive. And most of us say we object to child labour, the abuse and isolation of refugees and the building of cluster bombs but most of us also knowingly contribute to these atrocities. What happens in the gap between knowing what is right and acting on it? What drives us to continually let ourselves off the hook?
Social and behavioural psychology research has lately focused on our inability to follow through on our ethical values and intentions, and on our increasing attention to our own satisfaction at the expense of others.
While we appear to value happiness more than ever before, there is no evidence that we are becoming happier, or that we are contributing to the increased happiness of others. The research is telling us that we know more than ever about the environment and the world’s most disadvantaged people. We also believe more strongly than ever that we are committed to making a difference, but when it comes to action, we mostly fail to look beyond our own interests. How can we understand this gap between intention and action? Are there underlying personal issues that we may be missing in our search to understand why we so often fail to meet our own standards?
Underlying most of our personal approaches to making ethical choices is a system of reward and punishment. If I do this I will be rewarded and if I don’t, I may face consequences I don’t like. Advertising, policy spruiking and public health campaigning rely heavily on this notion of the rewards of right action — and the punishments that await us if we fall off the wagon.
n framing ethical decisions as things we do to get a certain result, we have effectively separated ourselves from the rest of the world. By doing so, everything that is not me becomes a kind of object, and this in itself is unethical. I need to know that I’m taking a particular action because to cause you harm is to also harm myself. I have no rights that impinge on yours, and I deserve nothing that you do not. The cluster bombs I allow to enter your world will also explode for me.
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