Moral Vulnerability and the Task of Reparations

Walker, Margaret Urban

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199316649.003.0005

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Finally, integrating vulnerability with the literature on negative events in marketing may offer novel insights into response strategies for firms. In the vulnerability literature, restoring autonomy and dignity are identified as particularly important (Mackenzie et al, 2014;Walker, 2014). Many conventional response strategies from firms may be ill-equipped to accomplish this.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Out of sight, out of mind: When and how perceived vulnerability decreases foreseeability and responsibility for causing harm in the marketplace.

Shepherd,

Light

2024

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied

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Numerous social categories are often seen as vulnerable to harm. In the context of firms causing harm to individuals, we seek to better explain when and why observers absolve firms of responsibility as opposed to holding them more accountable. We propose that when someone's identity is thought to make them vulnerable to harm, identity visibility (how observable the identity is) and frequency (how common the identity is) influence the perceived foreseeability of a harmful event and firm responsibility. Across five studies (total N = 2,101), we find that when visibility and frequency are low, perceptions of foreseeability decrease, in turn decreasing firm responsibility. We illustrate how visibility and frequency, and in turn foreseeability, can vary based on the characteristics of the individual being observed (e.g., the visibility or rarity of a health condition) or context (e.g., an otherwise visible identity may be invisible in an online service context). Foreseeability and firm responsibility increased when the harmed individual's rare health condition was reframed to communicate the firm's likelihood of interacting with any individual with the same health condition. Implications for consumer welfare, policy, and inclusivity are discussed. Public Significance StatementWhen firms cause harm to consumers who are perceived as vulnerable (e.g., people who are elderly, people with disabilities), we find that the vulnerability frequency (is it common vs. rare?) and visibility (is it visible or invisible?) impact observers' judgments of the firm. Using different manipulations and ways of framing information, we find that observers' judgments of foreseeability and firm responsibility are lower when vulnerability frequency is lower (vs. higher), and when vulnerability visibility is lower (vs. higher). This research helps explain when and why harming those who are perceived as more vulnerable will elicit more versus less outrage from the public.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Out of sight, out of mind: When and how perceived vulnerability decreases foreseeability and responsibility for causing harm in the marketplace.

Shepherd,

Light

2024

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied

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“…The fact that police regularly have to use normally immoral, albeit legitimate, methods (such as taking a person's property from them, physically forcing a person into a car) to realise the fundamental ends of policing, i.e., upholding moral rights of communities, has a corrupting effect on themselves (Miller et al 2006: 138). Their constant exposure to coercive power may account for their propensity for using immoral methods for reasons other than ones connected with the aims and goals of policing (Walker 2014;Crehan 2017). Moral vulnerability in this regard is a boomerang consequence of the police exercising coercive powers.…”

Section: Persuasion and Education: The Concept The Antecedents And Vu...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Techniques To Exploit Vulnerabilities: Persuasion And Education In Chinese Police Interrogations

Mou¹

2021

The British Journal of Criminology

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Drawing upon in-depth interviews with frontline police officers, this article examines persuasion and education as a psychological interrogation method routinely applied in Chinese police questioning. It analyses the three tactics employed by the interrogators in inducing the suspect to confess, including utilization of suspects’ personal relationships, their hope for the uncertain future and memories of past experiences. These mechanisms correspond to the three forms of universal vulnerability shared by human beings, namely the individuals’ susceptibility to human dependency, the predicament of irreversibility and uncertainty about the future. This article analyses the ways in which vulnerability as a universal human condition can be exploited by state coercion, and how this coercion produces the moral vulnerability of police.

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“…La vulnerabilidad moral, esto es, la posibilidad de sufrir daño en el contexto de las creencias sobre las que articulamos nuestra personalidad, y la permanente amenaza frente a los contextos que interrogan y cuestionan nuestros principios, nos exige una toma de posición fuerte y decidida, que ha de estar basada en la deliberación como clave para resolver los conflictos personales y colectivos. La reparación del daño en las personas que han sufrido pérdidas o que han sido olvidadas por el sistema en esta situación de pandemia, como ha ocurrido en buena medida con la gente mayor y la que se encuentra en situación de debilidad manifiesta (Grupo de Trabajo Ética y Covid (Euskadi)-ABFyC, 2020), exige afirmar su importancia, la presencia de las personas en relaciones de responsabilidad y reconocimiento mutuo (Walker, 2014). Y esto reclama ponderar con cuidado los valores que están en juego y justificar las decisiones que se toman.…”

Section: De La Vulnerabilidad Cognitiva a La Vulnerabilidad Moralunclassified

Vulnerabilidad y deliberación en tiempos de epidemia

Grande

2020

enrahonar

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La epidemia de COVID-19 nos enfrenta a una situación sin precedentes en la que descubrimos nuestra vulnerabilidad de modos variados y dramáticos. Amparados en la poderosa tecnología con que contamos, observamos ahora, sin embargo, nuestra enorme penuria al no poder dar una respuesta adecuada a la amenaza a nuestra salud y a nuestra supervivencia. La fragilidad que padecemos se pone de manifiesto en diferentes ámbitos: la vulnerabilidad de nuestra condición corporal y mortal, que nos obliga a refugiarnos en el confinamiento aislándonos de un medio que se ha tornado hostil y donde también descubrimos nuestra flaqueza psicológica; la vulnerabilidad de las situaciones de mayor desvalimiento, que ponen en evidencia la debilidad de los sistemas sociales y sanitarios para proteger a quienes se encuentran en una condición más delicada; la vulnerabilidad de los sistemas de gestión de recursos, que encaran la toma de decisiones más compleja tratando de preservar la justicia, y lo que podríamos denominar la vulnerabilidad moral, pues se pone en cuestión nuestra capacidad de manejar entornos deliberativos para resolver adecuadamente los conflictos de valores. Es preciso revisar estos entornos de vulnerabilidad para dar cuenta de cómo la realidad de la pandemia nos obliga a revisar y a desarrollar una ética a la altura de las circunstancias.

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Moral Vulnerability and the Task of Reparations

Cited by 11 publications

References 20 publications

Out of sight, out of mind: When and how perceived vulnerability decreases foreseeability and responsibility for causing harm in the marketplace.

Out of sight, out of mind: When and how perceived vulnerability decreases foreseeability and responsibility for causing harm in the marketplace.

Techniques To Exploit Vulnerabilities: Persuasion And Education In Chinese Police Interrogations

Vulnerabilidad y deliberación en tiempos de epidemia

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