Business & Society BADM 605 - Modules 1-2 - On Society, Human Nature, Social Norms, and Ethics
Business & Society BADM 605 - Modules 1-2 - On Society, Human Nature, Social Norms, and Ethics
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Business & Society BADM 605 – Modules 1-2 – On Society, Human Nature, Social Norms, and Ethics

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Let’s recap the content of modules 1 and 2 and I’ll add some insights that I found interesting about the content of these weeks about Society, Human Nature, Social Norms, and Ethics

What is society?

A society is a group of people who share common norms and rules and the members interact with each other based on that.
A majority must agree on what behaviors are acceptable and unacceptable. Within a society, divergent views may arise that do not accept the imposed rules. The same topic can be interpreted completely differently depending on the society and the time. One example is sexuality. The view of this topic in Ancient Greece is very different from that in Medieval Europe. Not all punishments are based on law. What a person does in their daily lives indicates whether they will be punished or rewarded in their social environment. We are social animals. We respond instinctively and subconsciously to social cues in the environment. But of course, depending on behavior, a person may suffer legal consequences for their actions. Societies are not static. They change over the decades and centuries. Rules tend to change with changes in production methods and technology. Nowadays, a public hanging, as happened a few centuries ago, would be unacceptable.

Culture is linked to the behaviors and norms of the members of a group, including their traditions and beliefs. Multicultural societies must develop a social consensus and define rules in this relationship between cultures.

I, Pencil – Leonard Read

This is a work based on the concept of the invisible hand of Adam Smith, the father of Modern Economics. It is a defense of the free market, the American author shows that the production of a “simple” pencil moves global chains, since capitalism is an extremely productive system, capable of producing a lot of wealth, this pencil can reach the end of the chain at a price that is affordable to everyone. He criticizes the (American) government between the lines, which was responsible for mail, it is implied that the author is in favor of a minimal State and that the delivery sector should be the responsibility of the private market, which can deliver more efficiency at a lower cost. If the author were alive, he would probably be amazed to see a company like Amazon.

Capitalism – Article from the Encyclopedia of Ethics and Society

Capitalism is an economic system based on private property, freedom of enterprise and contract. The “field” on which the system operates is the market. In the world, we have had the tribal system, feudalism, there was an attempt to create an economy based on coercive and planned bases, communism, the system collapsed in crisis in several countries and the dominant system in the world is Capitalism.

Capitalism is based on delivering the best possible result efficiently, taking into account that the available resources are limited.

An important market mechanism is price: it contains the information that agents need to be efficient.

In the real world, there is no “pure” capitalism; each place in the world adapts the system in its own way. There is Anglo-American capitalism, which is more individualistic, more competitive, and agents make their own decisions about the future. In continental Europe, social security is very important, moderating the free market through more regulations. In the Nordic countries, the security system is still strong. The Japanese model is oriented towards corporate interests, it is an economy with large companies with high corporate loyalty, low costs and high productivity, but it is a model that has been changing since the 1990s. The economic system, Capitalism, is not in a “vacuum” in space, it is linked to legal institutions, the State, which serves to correct market deficiencies, offering infrastructure, schools, roads, etc. Providing in some cases, a minimum income for the citizen. The economic system is not self-sufficient; it needs a legal and institutional basis to function. Moral mechanisms are necessary. For capitalism to function, it needs morality to foster values ​​such as trust, honesty, respect for the law, among other attributes.

On the Lighter Side: The Dilbert Take on Ethics Training

The short story in the video shows that the company falsified product safety testing, planted false stories about its competitor in the media, and practiced nepotism. All of this was done by the company’s leadership. The company hopes that by training employees in ethics classes, the problem will be solved. However, the manager is part of the problem of immorality and refuses to participate in these classes. If those in power refuse to behave ethically, how can they expect employees to follow suit?

YouTube Video: A Short Comment on the Social Brain

Humans are social beings who thrived on working in groups. In the early days of humanity, people who belonged to a group had a better chance of survival. Our brains, due to our biological history, are very aware of our social status and potential threats and rewards. In the modern world, where we live in the workplace, our brains are always providing us with feedback on our interactions with others. We need to know if things are working in our favor or when our social situation is under threat. Our brains use neural networks commonly used in pain and pleasure mechanisms to interpret our social interactions.

YouTube Video: The Social Brain Hypothesis

Primates have large brains compared to the body size of other vertebrate species. This is because our social function is complex. Our social organization includes friends, family, identity groups, and cultural groups. A human child cannot survive without the protection of others. A bond is formed between the child and the caregiver.
We collaborate to achieve common goals that we could not achieve alone.
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore has defined the social brain as: “the complex network of areas that enable us to recognize others and evaluate their mental states (intentions, desires, beliefs), feelings, enduring dispositions, and actions.”

Lakin & al (2003) – The chameleon effect as social glue – Journal of nonverbal behavior

The text also makes it clear that we are social animals, we have to trust each other for survival. The text takes a biological approach, the larger the group, the larger the neocortex. The text brings up the issue of social behavior: humans give meaning to nonverbal behaviors, that subconsciously we automatically mimic patterns in speech, facial expressions, gestures, movements, etc. That from one month onwards we can smile and stick out our tongues and open our mouths. At 9 months, children can already mimic joy, sadness and anger. This ability of ours is adaptive and important for communication. Mimicking is something that connects us. There is a relationship between mimicry and rapport. Mimicking the behavior of others is a way of wanting to affiliate ourselves with a group. Taking the perspective of others increases mimicry behavior. High self-monitors are more likely to mimic compared to low self-monitors.

Lieberman & Eisenberger – Pains & Pleasures of Social Life – Neuroleadership Journal (2008)

The author shows that our brain uses similar circuits that deal with social and physical pain for pleasure and pain. Confirming the video cited above. In many languages ​​around the world, physical concepts are used to define social pain, such as saying that “the heart is hurt due to unrequited love”, to refer to a social situation.
The author also says that in baby mammals, the being needs more care, because without a caregiver, this being does not survive.
The author says that those who have a high tolerance to physical pain also have a high tolerance to social pain.
Being accepted and valued in a group is important because it means survival and thriving resources. There are situations were giving to others is more rewarding than financial gain.
Bringing out the best in people in the workplace depends on optimizing that person’s emotional and social state. When our social needs are satisfied, it is the same reward compared to other tangible rewards.
Being treated with respect and value within the organization activates a reward system that expects more social rewards in the future.

Lieberman Ted Talk Presentation: The Social Brain and the Workplace

The video explains more about the text above. Companies usually neglect sociability within companies, as it is not something that is so tangible. But social interactions are important for well-being, productivity and happiness. Social pain is part of human nature and we cannot neglect it.

The researcher says that we study human capital, but he goes further, it is important for the company to worry about social capital, which is the interaction of people in the workplace. There is no point in the company having highly qualified, trained people, the best in their fields if they do not have a good relationship with each other, there is no flow.

He shows interesting data: “You have to make an extra $100,000 a year to get the same increase in your happiness as spending an hour with someone you like”.

He showed that getting along with coworkers is very important for a person to enjoy working at a company. He also showed two fields that may be promising in the future in the job market:

– Science of compatibility: having synchrony with people or groups under proper stimulus conditions.

– Matchmaking: Putting people in proximity to each other is really important

“Social Norms” from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The norms of honesty, loyalty, reciprocity and keeping promises help to smooth the functioning of social groups.
Norms support expectations of what can and cannot be done depending on different social situations.
Norms ensure the orderly functioning and reproduce the social system. They influence behavior. What society imposes as a norm is not always accepted as truth by the individual. As human beings, we identify ourselves in a group, which can be large (such as being American or Christian) or as members of a small group of friends. There is a connection between group identification and norms.
People follow rules as a strategy to avoid suffering negative sanctions and to attract rewards. The person who internalizes the norm feels guilty and ashamed if he or she acts in a way considered deviant. Even when new situations arise, the group tends to be guided by the norms they know.
Brennan et al. (2013) showed that norms have an essential structure. Norms are sets of normative attitudes in a group. Game theory has brought new insights to the study of norms. In the prisoner’s dilemma, when a norm exists, players believe that other players must also obey the norm, and may be punished if they do not follow it.
Institutions create rules to help guide our behavior and reduce uncertainty.
(Reuben and Riedl, 2013) In the absence of punishment, no positive contribution norm emerged and all groups converged toward free-riding
How can a norm emerge? In the biological view, it is due to cooperative behavior.
Bicchieri, Duffy and Tolle (2004) Norms in heterogeneous population driven by repeated interactions of conditional strategies. As the number of rounds grows, a norm of impersonal trust/reciprocity emerges in the population.
Rules such as imitations are extremely simple to follow.
Many social norms are based on technological or social innovations.
Norms spread under certain initial conditions, a theory that explains more about: evolutionary model.

Haidt (2001) Emotional Dog and Its Rational Tail

It is a complex text, but from what I understand, the author wanted to show that yes, the social model in which we live greatly influences decisions, that the “rationality” of actions has a very strong social basis of what we consider right and wrong. People have internalized that something is right or wrong, but often cannot explain why. Hume attacked rationalism; reason is a tool of the mind to obtain and process information about events in our world and about the relationships between objects. Freud said that people’s judgments were guided by an unconscious basis of motives and feelings. Turiel, Hildebrandt and Wainryb (1991) said that when people think that a behavior is immoral, they already talk about the harmful consequences. Societies have moral judgment; people talk about and evaluate other people’s actions. Moral intuition is quick, effortless and unconscious. Reasoning demands effort and some steps that are accessed by consciousness. The text explains some theories of moral judgment. In nonmoral traits, it is possible to observe that people considered attractive are also given the title of being more kind or a good person. This is done automatically. In addition, it shows how a stereotype can affect the view we have of another person. The text also talks about the issue of mimicry, the “chameleon effect” that we unconsciously imitate other people. A key phrase in the text: “We believe that our own moral judgment (the dog) is driven by our own moral reasoning (the tail).” The text talks about psychopaths, who know the rules of social behavior, understand the consequences of actions, but simply do not care. The intuitionist model proposes that morality, as they do language, is an adaptive evolution of social species. Language increased the use of norms by humans, but the cognition and emotion for this were already available. Culture is seen as a subset of the human being as a moral potential. There are 3 ethics: autonomy, community and divinity.

Contribution Points Considering the learning from this week’s reading and materials. I would like to share some insights:

Economic Freedom and Wealth in Capitalism:

Reading Leonard Read’s work and the definition of Capitalism from the Encyclopedia of Ethics and Society, is there a correlation between economic freedom and wealth production? It would be interesting to research this correlation. If economic freedom encourages society to produce more.

Countries by Economic Freedom: https://www.statista.com/statistics/256965/worldwide-index-of-economic-freedom/
Countries by GDP per capita (World Bank): https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?most_recent_value_desc=true

The social issue in brain development and health maintenance:

– The story of Tarzan

Is it possible that the story of Tarzan is real? He had no contact with any human being for years, would he be able to develop the cognitive part? Would he develop speech? I will tell the story of a girl who was abandoned by her parents, raised with animals and ended up developing mental problems.

– Burnout at work

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20230309-is-it-impossible-to-end-burnout

As Lieberman’s work shows, companies cannot neglect sociability, as this can be a factor that increases burnout and stress at work. Sociability is as important as eating and sleeping. He gave the example in the video in module 2 that people being in the same space, but removing the barrier between them, already helps.

The Dilbert Take on Ethics Training:

There is an excerpt from Robbins and Judge (2022) that is interesting in this discussion: “one study of 111 U.S. retail stores found that ethical leadership can reduce “retail shrink,” or the loss of merchandise primarily due to theft and shoplifting, because ethical leadership can reduce incivility among employees and customers.” In other words, leadership influences the team, ethical behaviors encourage ethics.

Are we really that rational?

Some reports show that people act on instincts and social contexts such as racism, sexism, patriarchy, etc. Confirming Haidt: moral judgments are primarily driven by quick, automatic evaluations (intuitions), rather than by conscious reasoning. In addition to the social influence of the environment.

Attractive people considered more trustworthy, research confirms
https://www.psypost.org/pretty-privilege-attractive-people-considered-more-trustworthy-research-confirms/

Your Height Has A Big Impact On Your Salary. New Research Seeks To Understand Why https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2020/04/16/your-height-has-a-big-impact-on-your-salary-new-research-seeks-to-understand-why/

U.S. gender wage gap

https://www.statista.com/statistics/244202/us-gender-wage-gap-by-industry

The racial wage gap starts as early as 16 for Black workers—and results in ‘a lifetime of consequences,’ says expert

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/15/racial-wage-gap-starts-as-early-as-16-heres-why.html

References

Material of the Week 1 and Week 2

Week 1: Course overview and some background reflections

Week 1 Topic: Overview of the Course:

Key Readings & Course Material:

  • Syllabus • Term Paper & Assignment Guidelines • Class notes on “What is a Society?”

Additional Suggested Readings & Material:

Week 2 Review: On Human Nature, Social Cognition, Social Influences, and Society

 Key Readings & Course Material:

  1. Lieberman & Eisenberger on the Pains and Pleasures of Social Life.
  2. Lakin, Jessica L., Valerie E. Jefferis, Clara Michelle Cheng, and Tanya L. Chartrand. “The chameleon effect as social glue: Evidence for the evolutionary significance of nonconscious mimicry.” Journal of nonverbal behavior27 (2003): 145-162.

Additional Suggested Material:

  1. Lieberman Video Presentation: The Social Brain and the Workplace.
  2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on “Social Norms”
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