Ethics in Persuasion

The topic I'm going to discuss in this blog is Ethics in Persuasion. Of all the options available for discussion, Ethics in Persuasion jumped off the page at me. I think on their own, ethics and persuasive techniques are both incredibly interesting, and open-ended topics to discuss.

Ethics has been a central topic of discussion in  the business world for some time now. Even in my own volunteer experience, I'm required to go through a training program called Making Ethical Decisions before I'm allowed to start. Many aspects of ethics are universally accepted, however there still exists a gray area where the lines aren't so easy to define.

I believe persuasion is something we all participate in daily, but rarely ever discuss. Before we can talk about ethics in persuasion, I think it's important to define the word first:

Persuade

1.	to induce, urge, or prevail upon successfully: he finally persuaded them to buy it
2.	to cause to believe; convince: even with the evidence, the police were not persuaded http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/persuade

Asking someone to buy you a coffee in the morning, have a report finished for you a day early, postpone a deadline a day later, are all very obvious attempts to persuade others. But what are the less obvious means of persuasion and where do we draw the line of which methods are appropriate and which are inappropriate ?

These are the questions I will attempt to answer throughout this blog!