While reading about the benefits of normative social influence, one particular aspect that intrigued me was how group no

[answerhappygod]

While reading about the benefits of normative social influence,one particular aspect that intrigued me was how group norms canencourage prosocial behaviors like donations to charities. Readingabout this made me think about the compliance techniques used insales and marketing, where a lot of charities, businesses andnon-profits rely on these techniques to invoke monetary supportfrom consumers, often without us being consciously aware of theways in which we are persuaded. A common example is digitalsoftware, media streaming and its affiliated services such asSpotify, Netflix, MailChimp, which employs the foot-in-the-doortechnique. They use "freemium" models to building consumer trustwith specific features available in the free version, and if theconsumer sees value in its usefulness, theymight accept the company's propositionby upgrading to the paid version (Saltis, 2021).
While we may fall for these tricks sometimes, people are alsobecoming more savvy in recognizing these tactics. Forcharities and other non-profit organizations in particular, Iwonder if there is a grey area in how people decide whether tosupport them or not. For me, I experience cognitivedissonance because while I recognize that acts of support likedonations are morally right to do and that they need a source offinancial support too, a lot of times I don't actually end updonating as I get put off by the traditional techniques they use. Alot of organizations have now diversified their strategies bypromoting social media campaigns and online petitions to ask forsupport. Though when I see others I know donating or filling outthe petitions, sometimes I am still skeptical to comply, as I oftendon't know where the monetary or non-monetary donations will go,and whether they actually contribute to the causes that theorganizations advocate for.
My question is, how do we decide whether to complyto the businesses and organizations' propositions, while at thesame time being able to make a clear judgment of what is true orethical, especially in the case of charities which tend to appealto our basic morals more explicitly? How do you personally make adecision when juggling between these factors? Considering that themain goal of marketing and sales ads is to persuade people intomaking a purchase, do you think the current compliance techniquesbeing used by companies and organizations are acceptable, or shouldthey be more ethical?