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[Ethics] E2/P2: Moral & Political attitude: Types, FactorsAffecting, Role of Social Media, Milgram Experiment

1. E2/P2: Video Lecture by2. Moral Attitude: Meaning3. Moral Attitude: Implications of4. Role of Social Media in Moral Attitude5. Political Attitude and ideologies6. Factors affecting Political attitude7. Role of Social Media in Political Attitude8. Strength of Attitude9. Accessibility of Attitude

10. Milgram Experiment

E2/P1: Video Lecture by Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198/CSE14)In the previous part (E2/P1), we understood the meaning, structure and function of attitude. Now well see themoral and political attitudes, for UPSC General studies paper 4 (GS4)

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/1oUiCAN3IT0

Moral Attitude: MeaningNot all attitudes are concerned with Morality. E.g. My attitude towards snakes has nothing to do withmorality. But my attitude towards democracy will have moral undertones.So, Moral attitudes are based on moral convictions of what is Right and what is wrong.Moral attitudes are stronger than moral beliefs.Family, society, religion and education play important role in framing those moral convictions.

Moral Attitude: Implications of

Positive Implications Negative ImplicationsTied up with strong emotions. Henceprevents deviant behaviors amongnormal folks due to fear of socialOsctricization e.g. child molestation,incest.

Person can use it to justify violence behavior and lunacy andstill society will accept it because moral attitude = strongemotions. ExampleApril 1919: A violent mob attacks an English missionaryMarcella Sherwood in Punjab. General Dyer uses this to justifyJaliawalla Massacre, and hes given heros welcome inEngland.

Motivates a person towards Altruism,volunteerism, social service.

Motivates a person towards riots, genocide and terrorism.

Since moral attitude is tied with strong emotions, people dontget along with those who dont share their moral attitude.Result? Intolerance. Before buying/renting a house, peoplewill inquire about the caste/religion of the neighbors.

Religious attitude has trickle down effect. E.g. Hindus vs.Muslim- if there is negativity towards other persons religiousoutlook, then theyll find differences even in political andeconomic outlooks. Ultimately itll transform from religious tocommunal attitude.

Role of Social Media in Moral AttitudeThrough facebook, whatsapp etc. youngsters are exposed to vulgar jokes, MMS, porn every day.This Adolescent curiosity about sex/porn vs. moral lesson to respect women = cognitive dissonance.According to studies, such boys have less empathy towards rape victims, aggressive behavioraltendencies, increased interest in coercing partners towards unwanted sex and so on.Bad/careless parenting + indifferent attitude of teachers + Peer pressure + exposure on TV/internet = ATeenagers moral compass doesnt point to straight north.Such teenagers feel attracted towards doing wrong things through internet, because internet gives themfollowing advantages

6 ways Internet catalyses wrong behavior1.Anonymity You can remain unknown / untraceable by police.

2.Action atdistance

You dont need to come near the victim.

3.Automation Through computer scripts, you can circulate same message/photos on thousands of onlinegroups within few keystrokes.

4.Accessibility Dataplans getting cheap everyday5.Perpetuity Text-images will multiply and exist indefinitely. So, even if say an MMS is removed from one

web-portal by court order, itll continue to circulate among others.

End result = 6 forms of Cyber-violence against Women1.Hacking Unauthorized access to system to acquire information2.Impersonation

Creating fake profile of a woman on Facebook to embarrass her.Creating fake profile on dating site to entrap woman in sex-trade.

3.SurveillanceTracking a victim through her GPS-mobile, tracking keystrokes.Planting spy-cams in ladies washrooms.Recording of MMS in hotel rooms/gardens.

4.Harassment Through persistence calls, messages, emails5.Recruitment

Sex-traffickers use whatsapp, chat-room, message boards to communicate withclients.Fraudsters post fake job vacancies to lure women into sex-trade.

6.Maliciousdistribution Spurned lover putting Morphed photos or ex-boyfriend posting intimate photos on

social media to embarrass woman.

Cyber-violence against women, is prevalent in all types of countries

First world: pornography, and sites such as Ashley Madison that help married people to cheat on theirpartners.Developing countries: ~2 lakh children are kidnapped and sold every year in China through online portal(2014 UN Gender report)Least Developed countries: Currently mobile phones are most commonly used tools for cyber violencein Nigeria, Kenya such as Viral rape videos/MMS.

Self-Study: Government of India decides to partially lift the ban on pornographic sites.

Political Attitude and ideologiesIt defines your like or dislike for a political person, party or ideology.

Ideology Character

Liberal/Moderate They support basic ideas of liberty, equality and democracy but want reforms in the systemalbeit not in extreme/violent manner but through constitutional / legal means.

Conservative Want Status quo. They believe changes or reforms will not improve the situation.Progressive

Progressive: slowly reform the systemRadical: immediately reform the system, e.g. Marx: Confiscate all the privateproperty immediately.Nehru was a progressive- he believed state ownership but in a gradual manner.

ReactionaryTheyre one step behind Conservatives I.e. Conservatives want status quo, whilereactionaries want to go back to previous system.Example Taliban/ISIS wanting to run nation with literal interpretation of Sharia/Quran.Religious organizations involved in politics= theyre usually reactionary in nature.

ExtremistExtremely unhappy with current systemwant complete change to a new system, and justify violence as a mean/tool toachieve the end/goal. (Recall Teleological ethics and consequentialism in E1/P2)

PacifistTheyre also unhappy with current system but reject violence as a tool to achieve thegoal.Example: Gandhi, Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.

Factors affecting Political attitude

ReligionReligion shapes a persons moral attitude E.g. Christianity defines Marriage as a unionbetween man and a woman. Therefore, a devout Christian will oppose same-sexmarriage.Moral attitude will predict political attitude. E.g. devout Christian more likely to vote forRepublican party in USA, since Republicans are opposed to same-sex marriage.

AgeOlder people more conservative and lean towards political democracy. (Younger peoplewant economic democracy).Young people more liberal / radical. Theyre interested in change, because theyll live toenjoy fruits of those changes.But there are no hard and fast rules e.g. When Ronald Regan was young, he was asupporter of Democrats and wanted government intervention in market. But when hegrew old, he leaned towards republican party, and worked for market oriented reforms.

EconomicStatus Poor will align towards communist / socialist ideology. Hell vote for a party promising to

get food, fertilizer and kerosene subsidy.Rich will align towards right wing- free market, capitalism. Hell vote for a party promisingto remove wealth tax. (recall the Utilitarian function of Attitude in E2/P1).So, why did Socialism thrive in post-colonial democratic third world countries from 50s to80s? Because people were mostly poor.

Residence Local unemployed youth more likely to align with party that promises action against themigrants or reservation based on region.

Family Children more likely to espouse the political ideology of their parents.Race If a race feels theyre deprived of opportunities because of other races, then more likely to lean

towards a party offering radical solutions against other races. E.g. German Aryans joining Naziparty.

Gender Females more likely to lean towards liberal ideology.Education School syllabus plays an important role. A Chinese may find Indian democracy as repulsive,

because he has been taught that Maos Communist ideology is best.Conceptionabouthumannature

Hobbes said, A person is fundamentally evil. Therefore, a strong-powerful state isrequired.Locke said, Man is a good rational person. Therefore, state should be kept weak, andmen should be made strong by giving more freedom and rights.Thus, if we believe people have feeling of altruism, well support communist ideology.

DispositionSome people hate order and prefer chaos-like Joker in the Dark Knight. Theyll naturallybe in favor of anarchy / radicalism.If a person is born and raised in a military family, hed be in favor of strong state,discipline, order, authoritarianism.Japan is a disciplined society, youll find the same in their building Architecture andpolitical functioning.

Socialmedia

The information processed and shared on social media, molds a persons political views. Socialmedia has played big role in swinging the opinion of youth towards Modi/BJP during 2014General elections.

Keep in mind that a persons political attitude is shaped not by any single, but complex combination of all abovefactors. E.g. A Poor Muslim youth may be pro-Congress/SP but a Rich Dawoodi Bohra Muslim may be pro-Modi.

Role of Social Media in Political AttitudeIn 2014 general election, ~16 crore voters were 18-24 age group first time voters. In such demographiccomposition, social media/internet plays huge role in shaping political attitude.Social media has helped both Modi and Kejriwal to reach surprise victories in election.Social media is full of both Hindu vs. Muslim, India vs Pakistan, Shia vs. A teenager exposed to suchgroups, is likely to develop extreme radical or reactionary political views.ISIS is using social media to recruit soldiers for their war.

Muzaffarnagar riots were a result of a viral video about eve teasing. Here moral attitude (about dignity ofwomen) + Religion + politics created a deadly stew.Whatsapp has become an App for activism and empowerment- for coordination of political and violentagitation. During recent Paatidar agitation in Gujarat, mobile internet was banned to prevent perpetratorsfrom coordinating their attacks/spreading false rumors.Self-Study: Section 66A and freedom of speech

Strength of AttitudeGovernment of Maharashtra has imposed beef ban in the states. How do you feel about this?

Strength of attitude Result?Strong Youll go out in dharnaa-Pradarshan for/against meat-banNeutral Youll not say /do anything thinking this doesnt concern me at personal level.Mild You may murmur about it to your family members while watching news.

In short, we can predict behavior by measuring strength of the attitude.

Accessibility of Attitude

Conscious Youre aware. Those C-A-B components immediately light in your brain.Hidden (unconscious) Youre unaware. C-A-B wont immediately reflect in your thoughts.

Study: Participants were asked will you vote for Obama?

Those who immediately raised hands (conscious), theyll go for voting on the election date.Those who raise hands after few minutes they did not go to voting.

Milgram Experiment

Hitler was an evil dictator. But even ordinary Germans participated in atrocities against Jews. Why?Prof. Stanley Milgram of Yale University (1961) began experiment to study it.The participant (teacher) would ask a series of questions to another participant (learner).

The teachers were instructed to shock the learners whenever an incorrect answer was given.The learner was not a participant at all but actually an actor who would pretend to be hurt by the shocksand yell out in pain when the button was pushed.2/3rd of the participants gave shocks upto fatal level (450 volts).Because behind participant, there was a doctor, hell keep saying go onincrease the voltage, person willnot die.

Moral of the story1. Lack of accountability, overwrites your conscience: Doctor is the authoritarian figure. Individual

participants conscience is overpowered, when participant thinks its not my responsibility, Im onlyfollowing orders.

2. Authoritarian figure can overwrite your conscience: Hitler was a great orator; he could sway the crowdin his favor just by a speech.

3. Peer-pressure is stronger than obedience : If there are two participants, second participants refuses togive shock to the subject and storms out of the room, then first participant may also walk away

4. Thus, Strength wise: peer-pressure (Conformity) > obedience > conscience.

This can explain

Nurembergtrials

German officers justified their actions saying we were just following orders (obedience).

Mass-movementsMasshysteria

Peer-pressure. Youve to participate, if others are participating. (conformity). Examples of Mass-Hysteria- Ganpati drinking milk

In the next part (E2/P3) well see the factors responsible for attitude formation, prejudice, discrimination and howto change behavior of people? And finally (E2/P4), well see the case studies and questions related to this topic.Visit Mrunal.org/Ethics for more study material on Ethics.

[Ethics] E2/P2: Moral & Political attitude: Types, Factors Affecting, Role of Social Media, Milgram ExperimentE2/P1: Video Lecture by Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198/CSE14)Moral Attitude: MeaningMoral Attitude: Implications ofRole of Social Media in Moral AttitudePolitical Attitude and ideologiesFactors affecting Political attitudeRole of Social Media in Political AttitudeStrength of AttitudeAccessibility of AttitudeMilgram ExperimentMoral of the story