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In China, no one is safe on March 15, World Consumer Rights Day. An Evening Gala is hosted every year by CCTV, China Central Television since 1991. The purpose is to name and shame companies for their misconduct against consumer interest. In decades past, firms like Starbucks, LG and Hewlett-Packard have been called out when offering poor products or irresponsible customer service. Many Chinese companies and state-owned enterprises like China Mobile have been inducted in this Hall of Shame as well.
This year, the Evening Gala aimed mainly at the misconduct in E-Commerce and Social Media. Elema, a billion-dollar food delivery company, was shamed for making food under unsanitary conditions; Yipai (Easy Pass), China’s leading online automobile marketing platform, was accused of hurting consumers by providing personal information to outsiders; Taobao, the biggest online shopping website founded by technology giant Alibaba, was named for fraudulent consumer reviews which influenced product rankings. The Gala quickly became a battle cry for corporate PR teams, who had to come up overnight with explanations and damage control.
Will these allegations curb bad behavior in companies and individuals? The answer seems to be “yes.” A new law prohibits indoor smoking in Beijing. Individuals breaking these regulations can be fined $30, restaurants up to $155. In addition to the fines, repeat offenders see their names posted on a government website for one month, alongside a list of their offenses. Witnesses to infractions are urged to notify the government. Social shaming pressure is expected to make the new law more effective - and it works.
Shame can be used to focus attention on some “bad apples”, especially when it comes to major collective problems. It helps to be creative and focused when choosing targets. Companies, such as British Petroleum or SeaWorld, do not feel guilt. However, the people working in these corporations do. Their thoughts and behavior can be influenced by public disapproval and even mortify them. Public opinion can be essential for companies, especially if they are producing consumer brands, such as iPhones or agile Orcas. Reputational risks are a concern, and public shaming can be most effective if targeted at ”friendly” corporations and their employees.
One must ponder the question: can "shame" really work in implementing government policy? Jennifer Jacquet, author of "Is Shame Necessary?", claims success for a website run by the state of California that lists the names of people who have not paid their taxes. The site targets only the top 500 delinquents, and the state has retrieved more than US$395 million in back taxes since it was launched in 2007.
Former presidential candidate Jeb Bush suggested that shame should be used to reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies. He believes that since people don't feel ashamed of single parenting, it has become acceptable for young women to give birth out of wedlock and young fathers to walk away from their paternal obligations, with major drawbacks for the child. He thinks that shaming might change that.
Another possible and very helpful area for “shame policy” is immunization of a country’s population. Typically, 90% of people need vaccination for there to be true immunity. People can opt-out and get a “free-ride”, since everyone around them is taking the needle for them. However, with reduced compliance, immunization doesn’t work anymore. That’s where shaming can help encourage participation.
Another example is the Rainforest Action Network and its shaming campaign against banks which financed coal companies doing mountain-top removal in the Appalachia region. After a five-year campaign, two of the nine banks have changed their policy of lending to coal companies. Two out of nine may seem like limited success, but every march starts with the first step. Shaming can act as a stop-gap for the period when people are concerned about something and when actual change comes about.
Working to avoid shame can lead to better weights and measurements. Who wants to be ridiculed by competitors or lose a long-developed fine reputation. Particularly in fields such as marketing, where the brand and personal perceptions are paramount, shaming can become a major influence if not the rationale for the curative marketing approach which aims to heal relationships between business, government and consumers. Avoiding shame by reducing, eliminating and making up for past mistakes, can strengthen a company's unique selling proposition and let it emerge as a seasoned competitor.
© Japan Today
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shonanbb
Japan needs this big time. I was told to go back to America last weekend when I complained about a smoker in a restaurant.
SenseNotSoCommon
Shame is only for the little people in Japan. Thanks, Confucius!
fds
and they were right. its the law in america, not here and the article talks about shaming as penalty which i do not see has anything to do with your complaint about smoking in particular...
that being said. i would argue that shaming is exactly what japanese society needs. in fact japanese society was built on haji as a means of enforcing social conformity but as people become more mobile, the same social control loses effect. if they snapped a pic of every person in the act of littering (or whatever) and posted them in train stations, i'm sure it would quite a deterrent effect.
chisineko
People litter in Japan? I saw, in 2005, a lady walk into the Kyoto street and retrieve a discarded chewing gum wrapper. Of course here she would have been arrested for reckless endangerment and committed.
kcjapan
Witnesses to infractions are urged to notify the government. Social shaming pressure is expected to make the new law more effective - and it works. - article
What also happens with shaming? Suicide.
The authors haven't spent one sentence on recognition that shaming can be used in revenge and false accusation.
Hardly a responsible attitude in social engineering, the praise of shame has a threatening and destructive intent, not the panacea of a halo of goodness. But, the reader will find this in the next example more clearly.
Former presidential candidate Jeb Bush suggested that shame should be used to reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies.
The case for suicide is more likely when a teenager is publicly humiliated and the inference on shaming is the intent to inflict harm on her and extend that shaming to her child.
But, Let's look at one more high minded judgement from Mr. Jeb Bush. For readers unfamilar with the Terri Schiavo case, Jeb Bush, as Governor of Florida prevented the recognized hospice (end of life) care for Terri Schiavo. His shaming then was extended to her surviving husband. Let's see what shaming does to Terri Schiavo and her husband.
"A governor who was known for his my-way-or-the-highway approach — and who rarely was challenged by fellow Republicans controlling the legislative branch — stormed to the brink of a constitutional crisis in order to overrule the judicial branch for which he often showed contempt. Bush used his administration to battle in court after court, in Congress, in his brother’s White House, and, even after Schiavo’s death, to press a state attorney for an investigation into her husband, Michael Schiavo."
"Bush changed tactics. In March 2005, he sought to have the state’s Department of Children and Families take custody of Schiavo, a move Judge Greer rebuffed with a restraining order. Bush had relied on a neurologist and bioethicist with Christian leanings who said it was “more likely” that Schiavo was minimally conscious than in a vegetative state."
“He has to be bogus, a pro-life fanatic,” responded another neurologist who studied Schiavo on behalf of the court. “You’ll not find any credible neurologist or neurosurgeon to get involved at this point and say she’s not vegetative.”
Now, let's take up shaming. In the political arena Jeb Bush 'even after Schiavo’s death, (pressed) a state attorney for an investigation into her husband, Michael Schiavo', and this is the man demanding shaming as social engineering? Let us read what a fine man Jeb Bush is.
"Michael Schiavo, a registered Republican, said in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times. “He never called me, and if he was so interested, why didn’t he come see her?” he added, recounting how Bush made time to appear on ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover show in St. Petersburg, but not to see Terri Schiavo, who was minutes away."
source:http://www.cruxnow.com/life/2015/01/20/jeb-bushs-fight-to-keep-terri-schiavo-alive/
In conclusion, the credentials of author Czinkota do not include ethics or psychology, Mr. Czinkota is a salesman. In this effort he is selling shame from the perspective of the Republican Party who he served under Reagan and Bush.
Clearly shame is not something Republicans feel, that's why their candidates are full tilt for wars and shaming citizens they would rather humiliate than help. That's a case for shaming and no one should be ashamed to point this out.