During this week’s podcast, I made mention of the only MA voter initiative we didn’t analyze in depth (a ballot question requiring automobile diagnostic and repair information now available only to auto dealers be shared with all auto shops). And the show ended with an appeal that we stop beating ourselves up over the fact that many important decisions we make in life are not governed by logic (logos) alone.
I’d like to talk about how the first item just mentioned (the auto ballot question) can help illustrate why decisions based on pathos and ethos (especially ethos) can be just as valid (if not more so) than ones decided purely on facts and logic.
First off, there is probably a limitation as to just how much the average non-auto-repair person can fully grasp technical details as to why auto information currently available only to dealerships is so important.
No doubt a careful review of the text of the ballot question, coupled with an analysis of arguments presented by each side, supplemented with our own research could move even non-experts closer to understanding factual details regarding this proposal. But at the end of the day, non-auto-repair-people will have to make a decision regarding who to trust to provide unbiased and accurate information.
Wait a minute; did I just use the word “trust” in a conversation of how we’d use logos to help us make a decision? Trust, which is not a logos response, but an ethos one?
Here you can begin to see where the real world diverges from the computer program since input is input is input for the microprocessor, which doesn’t care if the person generating the code is an angel or a cad. But for we human beings, trust is paramount not just for how we feel about a person but whose inputs we will be comfortable accepting.
The reason I bring this up is because at least one person in this household is going to vote Yes on Question 1 (thus requiring the aforementioned auto information to be shared), and is making their decision based not on the Massachusetts Voter Information Guide that spells out both sides of the issue, but because of another piece of mail we received recently: a Vote Yes on #1 flier sent to us by the American Automobile Association (AAA).
Now in theory, such a decision might represent letting emotion overwhelming reason. Maybe this voter is remembering that time AAA was there when the family had a roadside breakdown. Or, perhaps they are waxing nostalgic over a TripTik the organization once provided for a vacation (or just appreciate the AAA discounts received during that trip).
But it’s more likely that this decision is based on the trust of AAA to represent auto consumers, regardless of what various benefits and fringe benefits they also provide to members. And because, as an organization, AAA has spent decades building good will for their role of representing car owners (vs. car makers or car repairers), their endorsement seems a reasonable basis upon which to make a choice.
Unlike other endorsements (such as an esteemed Senator endorsing someone from his own party for President), the AAA endorsement has the benefit of perceived detachment, an important ethos driver. For while the Senator (or at least his party) would benefit from a fellow party member being in the White House, it’s not entirely clear that AAA stands to gain if the vote on Question #1 goes one way or another.
Perhaps we might be swayed by an ideological bias regarding the negative consequences of too much consumer advocacy (i.e., if enough consumers make enough costly demands that someone else has to pay for, we all suffer). But here a reasonable reading of the proposal in question gives us some perspective that this vote does not represent a majority voting themselves an endless series of goodies that the minority has to provide.
Given the sheer number of decisions we need to make every day, comprehensive knowledge will likely never inform a majority of them. So rather than torture ourselves over the fact that we are likely to make some of those decisions (including those on tomorrow’s ballot) based on how we feel about an issue or how much we trust a candidate, we might all be better off learning to understand and harnass all elements that will go into our decision-making, since they will be in the mix regardless of whether we’re ready to admit it.
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