Sociology-A Two Edged Sword

I just read an article in New Republic entitled “Pulp Propaganda” by Jeet Heer. He writes about a mid-twentieth century cartoon character created by Roy Crane. Buz Sawyer was a hero who fought against all of our foes during the Cold War from Iran to Vietnam, exalting the virtues of free enterprise, condemning the evils of communism and demonstrating the benevolence of the United States. When Roy Crane passed they found documents in his archives, letters he received from the State Department that outlined the story lines in some detail which he followed. A week ago, Fareed Zakaria had a guest on his Sunday GPS show on CNN who was the minister of a new department in the UK known as “Nudge”. The role of the organization was to encourage citizens to behave properly (pay their taxes, obey laws, help their neighbors, etc.) by including phrases like “your neighbors pay their taxes” in information sent out to the public. They found the turn of phrase had a measurable impact on people’s behavior. I suspect this department along with the department under the Secretary of State that directing Buz Sawyer, are staffed by sociologists, who after all are students of human behavior and understand what makes us tick. I have often thought about the use of sociology in commerce and government, recognizing that in both institutions, it can and does serve both a beneficial and nefarious purpose. In the first example above the government was trying to manipulate us and others who read our newspapers around the world into seeing us as benevolent supporters of freedom and wellbeing of people around the world. At the extremes, entire population segments, like the Jews in Germany, the Palestinians in Israel or more and more Muslims here, are pronounced to be evil doers, destroying an economy, occupying promised lands or threatening a culture. The second example is a positive one, where by proper placement of a few words, instead of brutal enforcement, people can be nudged to socially beneficial behavior. In commerce sociology is also a two edged sword. Sociologists, considering their understanding of human behavior, can use this information, through advertising, packaging and product placement get us to enhance a company’s profit sometimes even at the cost of our health and wellbeing (cigarettes, alcohol and sugared foods) or buy stuff of no value to us (pet rocks, many children’s toys and overly expensive golf balls). On the positive side sociologists can contribute ideas for making a workplace more livable. (I had to think hard to come up with a positive for the commercial.) In fact everyone probably uses their understanding of what we humans react to in presenting our outward appearance and selecting and arranging our words and phrases. We get dressed up and answer questions we think will help us get a job. We act sweet or manly and considerate to make us appealing to a potential mate. We all, to varying degrees try to do in an amateurish way, what professional sociologists do expertly. So what is the issue? The internet has allowed almost anyone to reach almost everyone and facilitated the use of the knowledge of human nature for their advantage. Unfortunately sociology, amateur or professional, is used more for selfish commercial purposes and spreading extreme ideologies than to advance society’s well -being. Even ISIS has developed this skill. They have learned the word, from their misinterpretation of the Koran, to entice disenchanted youths to join their cause and commit heinous acts against humanity. The skills used by “URGE” in the UK which are good can easily, in the hands of a different government, be used for evil.