every time someone asks me 'how are you doing' and doesn't mean it, it makes me a little less happy inside. i have to work hard to focus my thoughts on their intent - to greet me - and not on the fact that they asked a question i'd love to answer but they don't want to hear the answer to, because they don't mean what they are saying.
it hurts.
but nobody's going to say it's "unethical" to ask people how they're doing unless you mean it.
so if someone gauges people's reactions, and realizes 'hey, people don't like this' - they've already commited an "ethical violation" according to research ethics defined this way.
people don't like emotional manipulation. i get that - but laws don' fix the problem. laws ignore emotion; they make no special cases. if anything, our society's obsession with rules that are specifically designed to _prevent_ emotion from changing our decision making just makes this worse.
every time someone asks me 'how are you doing' and doesn't mean it, it makes me a little less happy inside. i have to work hard to focus my thoughts on their intent - to greet me - and not on the fact that they asked a question i'd love to answer but they don't want to hear the answer to, because they don't mean what they are saying.
it hurts.
but nobody's going to say it's "unethical" to ask people how they're doing unless you mean it.
so if someone gauges people's reactions, and realizes 'hey, people don't like this' - they've already commited an "ethical violation" according to research ethics defined this way.
people don't like emotional manipulation. i get that - but laws don' fix the problem. laws ignore emotion; they make no special cases. if anything, our society's obsession with rules that are specifically designed to _prevent_ emotion from changing our decision making just makes this worse.