Morality and social approval
What is social approval theory?
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Social approval is the positive evaluation of an individual or group in a social context. Social approval is a driving factor in morality and is an important dynamic when evaluating reputation. Another concept connected to social approval is likability. Individuals typically want to be liked by others and approval seeking is a means of achieving this likability. Avoiding stigma is a defensive mechanism to maintain likability.
Likability ratings are poll based measurements which determine how likable a person is. The likability rating allows an individual to track the public sentiment around their social approval. Why is this all important?
Morality and what others believe is right
Thinking about morality, if an individual is trying to be perceived as a "good person" then they are seeking social approval. Good persons are generally well liked by others and reputation also plays a role in this. The loss of social approval can be thought of as a cost, or put in a different way the lowering of an approval rating such as likability is a social cost. Personal morality is about doing what you believe based on your best judgment to be the right thing. On the other hand there can be a conflict between your personal judgment as to what you perceive as "the right thing" and the public opinion on "the right thing". Likability can suffer even if an individual does what they perceived to be "the right thing" if it violates what public opinion dictates is "the right thing".
To seek approval under social approval theory is to have behavior which focuses on the personal opinions of a significant others like (parents, coaches, priests, spouse, children). Unlike the pressure to conform to public opinion, this is an even stronger pressure to conform to the expectations of family, friends, those closest. It is this pressure which I hypothesize keeps people locked in patterns of moral behavior because they wonder what would their significant other think of them if they did something which could be perceived as immoral.
The ultimate question, is it more important to do what others believe is right or to do what you believe is right? Perhaps the answer to that question is influenced by how important it is to maintain the approval of those others.
I feel a person should do whatever he thinks is best for him. If you start living life just to get accepted by others you soon start to losr your identity. Once that happens you stray from living a fulfilling life which can easily drive you to feel depressed. I think we are pretty clear on what depression can do to us. It can litterally take away all the joy life has to offer.
Thank you for sharing.
If you care about the consequences then does the reaction of others not influence what is best for you in terms of consequences?
Does society allow for personal identity if it has a concept called morality which gets enforced by public opinion? It's true that an individual with no fear of the consequences can literally do whatever they feel like doing but an individual who seeks to gain as much pleasure from life with the least suffering, they might have to care about public opinion or even just the opinions of their significant others as a means of avoidance of suffering.
As I said in my post, there is a cost to ignoring the moral opinions of others. That cost is ultimately social exclusion, being shunned, losing reputation, etc. How do you determine when it's worth it to accept that cost?
I agree with cost you that when you start to do what you desire and just ignore the opinion of others, you can end up being socially ignored. For your Question.
You should analyze that how much it matters to you to live your life in a certain way. Is it possible for you that if you don't follow that certain path that is criticized by others, you will still be living a fulfilling life. I will give you an example of my own here just to clarify when we can ignore others.
I live in a conservative society where earning living from the internet is thought to be a dream that internet markets show to fool people. That's the public opinion around here in Pakistan. Not all believe this but 99.99 percent of Pakistanis believe this is true. In my social circle, everybody believes that I am living in a dream and wasting my time on the internet and often get opinion from others that I should do something useful with my time. But, I ignore every opinion my friends and family has about my career and continue to live my dream. As a result, I am kind of freak in my social circle. Not invited to the parties or gatherings. Is it ok? Yes it is. I can handle that. But what I can't handle, is to live the traditional lifestyle, wake up go to work. Come home do your chores sleep and then the same for the next day. I can risk everything to get out of this cycle. Coz I just don't want to stuck at the same place throughout my whole life. I want to travel, I don't want to live local rather I want to live an international life and that is why I ignore my critics. I choose to be socially alone. May you have get my point and the answer to your question.
I definately do what i think is right and not what others think, however i still consider arguments from others, because i could be wrong...
If your significant others think your behavior is evil but you think you are right then what do you do? Will you change your behavior to keep your significant others or be right by your own standard?
I cannot think of anything that i would consider as the right move while someone else would think as an evil thing to do. Even if such thing exists, i think that you and your significant other must agree on core values, otherwise how can you be together in the first place...
Is it always going to be the case that you and your significant others will agree on core values?
when its only our opinions,
that makes this CHOICE.
Opinions which are different according to every PERSON,
which carry impermanence
and a huge likelihood of OBVERSION.
We trust these constantly reforming OPINIONS,
how idiotic are we, to trust such an OBLIVION.
What is more important to you, public or personal opinion?
But even personal ones can't be trusted,
We should always be open to accept change,
To safeguard our efforts to go in vain.
It seems like The Buddha would be irrelevant according to this metric.....
And, was Jesus being immoral when he chased the money changers out of the temple and when he did good on the Sabbath?
Jesus was also treated as a terrorist and lynched. It is true he was a rebel, but the cost for him was the penalty of death.
True enough, but he was still quite popular with the masses. Within this metric, he would simply be blocked/muted.....
Not necessarily. He received social approval from his followers.
TPTB didn't really have the tech to keep his message away from his followers in that age; they do now, in fact, any subversive view of the Krist's teachings has been rendered banal by the institutions claiming to represent him.
In the case of Christian Gnosticism, though, they did find a way to quiet that interpretation of who he was: they simply murdered The Gnostics.....
Social Influence: Crash Course Psychology #38
Is public opinion the true shaper of moral authority in society?
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If you keep trying to keep people happy just so that they like you then I have bad news for you because you are going to be pretty miserable yourself all your life.
Very interesting post!
Thanks for sharing
Hay. @dana-edwards.
Am I the only one who thinks that it is a bs post for bot votes?
And if I make bs posts would I have a reputation this high? On the other hand your reputation is 31 so how do I know you're not a bot?
Yeah, I'm another bot, too. 👻
No offense about making money, though. 💰