Let’s face it: We’re all a little neurotic. But when quirks and mild aversions grow into crippling phobias, psychologists may search for novel and creative solutions.
As an antidote for pathological shyness, one psychologist instructed patients to go into department stores and engage salespeople by asking for product information and advice. In some cases, patients were instructed to make purchases, then come back a few days later to return the merchandise.
The concept is simple. Through repeated interactions of this kind, patients gradually become comfortable with approaching strangers, asking for information, and asserting themselves in the normal give and take of daily human discourse.
However, this form of therapy depends on the unknowing collaboration of store personnel, potentially interfering with their job of attending to paying customers, distracting them from other work, creating extra work in dealing with returns and restocking, and possibly costing them commissions from real customers.
Is it ethical for the psychologist to treat the patient in a way that might cause even a minor loss and inconvenience to the store and its sales force?2
Grapple with the Gray
List two or three reasons in defense of this kind of treatment.
List two or three reasons why the psychologist should not prescribe these treatments.
Did the psychologist have another option?
Having weighed the options, what would you do?
Gray Matters
According to Jewish law, it is forbidden to go into a store to ask the price of an item after having purchased it elsewhere merely to ascertain whether or not you got a good deal. To do so not only distracts store personnel from what might be more profitable activities but also raises the false hope of actually making a sale.
However, the world of sales and marketing is perpetually evolving. There was a time when all sales were final. Now that returns are common, finding a lower price after making a purchase could indeed lead to returning the original item and buying it elsewhere for the lower price.
What’s more, sales are no longer just about single interactions and purchases. They are about relationships and brand loyalty. A pleasant interaction today could lead to many sales in months and years to come.
Retailers also know that even when customers fully intend to return a purchase, they often fail to follow up. They may decide to keep the merchandise, or they may never get around to bringing it back.
Finally, most people are happy to help others when it requires little investment in time or energy. If the store owner and personnel knew that they were helping a patient develop a healthier mental outlook through a few minutes of interaction, they would probably be more than willing to cooperate.
To that end, it might be ethical as well for the psychologist to alert the owners or managers of a few nearby stores that he would be sending his patients their way and ask for their permission and cooperation.
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2 Adapted from Y. Zilberstein. 2013. Veha’arev Na (Jerusalem, Israel: Philipp Feldheim).