Wednesday 25 February 2009

Your Opinion Only Counts if You Have One

Fellas, you know the situation. Your partner arrives home from a shopping trip clutching a bag, almost deliriously satisfied with what she's acquired during her "retail therapy" and rushes upstairs to put on whatever it is.

She reappears moments later and asks the question; "What do you think?" with a tone that says you couldn't possibly think anything other than "It's surely the most beautiful garment ever crafted with a fit so good it must have been made by the gods with you in mind".

Or worse still, "Don't you love it!" An almost rhetorical question that can go off like a firework if left hanging in the air for more than half a second. If you have to think of the right answer it will be too late.

The problem is compounded by the fact that, until a moment ago, you were happily ensconced in whatever it was you were doing whilst she was shopping; building a model train, watching sport on TV, picking your nose, who can say? Whatever it was, your unconscious mind was happily preoccupied and your conscious attention parked and snoozing somewhere close by.

Then the question comes and shakes your conscious into life. And it knows the pressure it's under to give the right answer.

But what if you were only half listening? You only half hear the question and miss the tone of voice? What if you actually think about it? Really take the time to consider what you think?

And then, a social pause stretching to eternity later, decide you don't really have an opinion. Well then you may as well have just said, "It would only suit someone a lot slimmer than you dear" opened your legs and braced for a firm kick.

Curiously, I've just been asked to complete a survey that had a very similar approach. The subject was music buying, and in particular download sites (both legal and not).

I enjoy music. I spent several years playing in a band. But, call me old-fashioned, I still buy things on CD. I haven't given much thought to music downloading.

So when the questions are asked that try to solicit my opinions on the ethics of the matter I don't really have much to say.
  • "It is unfair that some people don't pay for the music they download"
  • "I believe there is a strong chance of getting caught if I downloaded music for free""Paying for music is the right and moral thing to do""I am concerned that I would get in trouble if I illegally downloaded music for free"

If I was someone who was earning their living from writing and publishing music then I expect I would have very strong feelings, and I would suggest that such a person should be entitled to share their opinion.

But me?

Now that they've asked I can hypothesise some answers; but they're quite involved and they don't fit the four boxes I'm allowed to tick.

I can strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree or strongly disagree, but I MUST have an opinion. I can't continue the on-line survey without answering.

What I'd like to say is that, "I haven't given this much thought before, and there are probably people directly involved whose opinions are far more important than mine. But I would suggest basically people should be able to offer something for sale and not have it duplicated without their permission - I believe in the benefits of a copyright system. However, the spreading of music is ultimately beneficial to the musicians concerned who can play live and generate an income that way. So if the upshot is that the record companies are the ones getting screwed I'm less bothered, primarily because they've been ripping us off for years by charging much more for music in the UK than in the US. What's more, they've also been (mostly) ripping off the musicians they represent, so forgive me if I don't shed too many tears. And whilst we're at it, I worked for a company that was full of people from the music industry and they were a manipulative and dishonest bunch."

Now, what do you think? Is that "Somewhat agree"?

Why can I just not have an opinion?

At the very least, wouldn't it have been worth asking if it was a subject I had considered or cared much about. My 'now you ask' ambivalence shouldn't really be used to build a stick for public beating (or should that be be bleating) one way or the other.

In fact, knowing that I don't have an opinion could be just the sort of information someone needs to start a communication campaign that influences my brain into caring more strongly one way or the other.

"Paying for music is the right and moral thing to do"... hmmmmm, yes absolutely, it is.

But can there be a continuum of morality? Because I certainly don't feel as strongly about this as, say, child abuse.

And, now that I reflect on this from a psychological and behavioural perspective, I'm aware that the questions I've already answered have sensitised me to an issue.

I'm constructing a set of feelings as a consequence of the initial questions and the associations they've triggered in my mind. I'm leaning towards agreeing with this statement, but I'm fairly sure that, had someone asked me it in isolation I would have been even less willing to commit to an answer.

And another thing. Someone somewhere is going to use this to support and argument for something. And that's probably going to involve spending money. Is that going to be tax payers money?

Am I really being asked if I will pay to protect the rights of musicians? If so, how much?

I'm a lot more laissez-faire if the alternative is going to cost me money, especially if no one is willing to say quite how much it will be!

And wouldn't you just know it, the next question tells me that government is considering ways to reduce illegal file sharing of music... don't tell me I'm already paying for this pointless exercise in opinion solicitation.

"How effective do you think the following methods of persuading people to stop file sharing will be?"

Options include the deliciously quirky..."Two letters to the customer from their ISP" (so the ISP will have to pay and then pass the cost on to me, great).

There seems to be no option for me to specify a number of letters that I regard as ideal, say, 603.

How am I supposed to predict what will change other people's behaviour? I know from my work in social psychology that I can't even predict my own accurately (nor can you).

Further questions appear which implicitly disregard my answers that I don't illegally download music from peer to peer sites before the final question reveals the questionnaire designer's (or at least buyer's) hand still further:

  • "How likely do you think it is that significant action will be taken to stop illegally filesharing copyrighted music on peer-to-peer sites and networks?"

"Look", they'll say, "no one thinks we're going to do anything about it, we must prove that we can act!"

Or...

"Everyone expects us to act, so we must."

I do hope this wasn't the government's (and therefore our) money wasted on this exercise in justifying what is essentially a fundamental legal issue.

If it's illegal to download copyrighted music, and I'm pretty sure it is, prosecute the people who do it and fine them so that you cover the cost of the action you're taking.

If the ISPs won't release the information prosecute them for assisting an offender (or whatever's legally appropriate).

It may not stop people doing it. God knows there are lots of speeding prosecutions, but the enthusiasm with which motorists are pursued doesn't seem to reduce the incidence of the offense. But you have no way of knowing until you try it, whatever survey respondents might tell you.

But please, whoever you are, don't waste money asking people what they think.

  • "We'd like to find out how likely you believe it is that an individual illegally filesharing music will have legal action taken against them by the copyright owner. Have a think about what the odds might be.Please enter a number in the box below that you believe to be the odds of an individual facing legal action from the copyright owner. An estimate is fine."

    Oh no. How about 1 in 624091? Is that a good estimate?
  • "Now we'd like your opinion as to what you believe the odds of an individual facing legal action would need to be in order for the great majority of people to stop illegally filesharing. An estimate is fine.It would need to be 1 in ____ chance of facing legal action for most people to stop."

    By now, forgive me, I can't resist.

    I suggest "624090." There that should help.

Philip Graves
The Consumer Behaviour Research Resource