Behaviorally Informed Vaccination Policies: Political Transparency as an Ethical Condition and Effective Strategy

Humana Mente 14 (40) (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are indispensable allies in the fight against COVID-19. Behavioral and cognitive scientists have argued for taking advantage of insights from their fields of investigations in shaping anti-COVID policies. B&C scientists extensively discussed the methodological and practical issues that arise in translating B&C research results into policy interventions aimed to boost vaccination, Nevertheless, the same cannot be said for the ethical aspects. In the present work, we discuss the ethics of nudging vaccination in light of the “alien control” objection, a kind of control whereby an agent has the power to influence the choice of another agent, and the latter cannot control such power. We proceed as follows. We begin by presenting several cases of mandatory policies avaiable to policymakers to boost the vaccine rate. Next, we point out that insights from B&C sciences can inform mandatory policies and open up ways to enhance them. In section 3, we focus on untraditional policy tools, viz. nudges. In the second part of the article, we introduce the debate on the ethics of nudges, focusing on the “alien control” objection and its relevance for the citizens’ freedom and autonomy. We therefore discuss the original point of the paper. We argue that, referring to nudging vaccination, a somehow neglected ethical issue posed by nudges emerges. Our point is that nudges do not exert exclusively an influence over a targeted behavior. Indeed, nudges impose as well a political influence by which citizens are treated as means to succeed in achieving a peculiar, and potentially controversial, political aim. We argue that, due to what we propose to call the “political multi-justifiability" of nudges, their political influence cannot be detected by citizens. This leads to the threat of alien control. In the last section, we draw some tentative conclusions, suggest a possible solution and its practical advantages.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 99,462

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Nudging in Donation Policies: Registration and Decision-Making.Douglas MacKay & Katherine Saylor - 2021 - In Solveig Lena Hansen & Silke Schicktanz (eds.), Ethical Challenges of Organ Transplantation. Transcript Verlag. pp. 65-80.
COVID-19 Vaccines and the Virtues.Konrad V. Boyneburgk & Francesca Bellazzi - 2022 - Public Health Ethics 15 (3):209-219.
Nudges: a promising behavioral public policy tool to reduce vaccine hesitancy.Alejandro Hortal - 2022 - Revista Brasileira de Políticas Públicas 12 (1):80-103.
Shifting the concept of nudge.Brynn F. Welch - 2013 - Journal of Medical Ethics 39 (8):497-498.
Market nudges and autonomy.Viktor Ivanković & Bart Engelen - 2022 - Economics and Philosophy (1):138-165.
Nudging, Transparency, and Watchfulness.Viktor Ivanković & Bart Engelen - 2019 - Social Theory and Practice 45 (1):43-73.

Analytics

Added to PP
2022-01-05

Downloads
19 (#960,136)

6 months
3 (#1,427,535)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Stefano Calboli
Universidade do Minho
Vincenzo Fano
Università degli Studi di Urbino

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references