Why ask ethical questions about technology design?
“Our conventional response to all media, namely that it is how they are used that counts, is the numb stance of the technological idiot.” – Marshall McLuhan (2003, p 31)
Throughout his writings, Marshall McLuhan pointed out a cliché that we commonly hear about technology. Typically, it goes something like this…
- If there’s a serious social problem that comes with using new technology, the problem is not the technology itself. Rather, the problem is how the technology is used by people.
- For example, the problems with social media (online outrage, addictive scrolling, degrading mental health, etc.) are not problems with social media per se. They are problems with how people choose to use social media.
However, as McLuhan argued, it’s time to put this cliché to rest. The main problem is that it precludes asking certain questions about technology: namely, ethical questions about technology design. It presumes, for instance, that technology is neither ethical nor unethical but somehow ‘neutral’ in its design. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a ‘neutral’ design.
Why there’s no ‘neutral’ design
To understand why there’s no such thing as ‘neutral’ design in technology, we need to consider “choice architecture” and “nudges.” These terms come from the field of behavioral science, popularized in the book Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness, by behavioral economist Richard Thaler and legal scholar Cass Sunstein. Let’s briefly unpack the meaning of each term.
Choice architecture: how design influences decisions
Simply put, choice architecture refers to how choices are presented to people in different ways by a product, service, or technology. Depending on how that product, service, or technology is designed, it can strongly influence what decisions people will make.
Take a simple example: a buffet table with vegetables and desserts. Typically, when a buffet table has vegetables at the start of its line, more people will be more likely to eat more vegetables. Conversely, when a buffet table has desserts at the start of its line, more people will be more likely to eat more desserts. So, the same buffet table offering the same foods can nevertheless influence what people will choose to eat, depending on its setup or design.
Nudges: design-based influences on behavior
Thaler and Sunstein refer to these sorts of design-based influences on our behavior as nudges. Not surprisingly, nudges have ethical implications when it comes to how we design products, services, or technologies.
After all, if different types of choice architectures can influence—or nudge—people to make different kinds of choices, then it’s impossible to design any product, service, or technology that doesn’t nudge people in ways that make some decisions more likely than others. For this reason, Thaler and Sunstein conclude:
“there is no such thing as a ‘neutral’ design” (Thaler and Sunstein, 2008, p 3).
From ‘neutral’ design to ethical design
If there’s no such thing as a ‘neutral’ design—that is, a design that doesn’t nudge people and influence their behavior—then designers of technology should bear in mind an underlying ethical question:
Is the technology truly designed to help people make good decisions?
Here’s one way to think about this question: What’s in the best interest of people who use the technology, and does the technology enable that? In other words, does the technology design enable people to make decisions that improve their well-being? Or, at the very least, does the design NOT run contrary to people’s well-being?
For instance, many social media platforms today have designs that clearly run contrary to people’s well-being, primarily due to manipulative algorithms and addictive design. In particular, social media are designed using algorithms that manipulate what people see online, with the goal of keeping everyone addicted to ‘liking’ and ‘doomscrolling’ through invasive ads and click-bait content. (This is why I think it’s time to reform social media.)
Ethical design and tech ethics
Bringing ethical considerations into technology design often goes by the name of ethical design. In fact, it’s part of a broader approach that the philosophy of technology calls tech ethics (a.k.a. ethics of technology or technoethics). In essence, tech ethics means thinking about how we can effectively create, implement, and use technology in ethical or humane ways.
Why not ask ethical questions about technology design?
Technological innovation, according to this ethic, ought to help us solve social problems, not contribute to them. Ultimately, the way we design technology will nudge people and influence their behavior, for better or worse. Why not make it for better?
References
McLuhan, Marshall. (2003). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man: Critical Edition. (W. Terrence Gordon, Ed.). Berkeley: Gingko Press. (Original work published 1964.)
Thaler, Richard and Sunstein, Cass. (2008). Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New York: Penguin Books.