Character Diversity

The principle of character diversity

Originally from November 2011

Over the course of the weekend of November 12–14, 2010, in the port city of Lorient in Brittany, France, a local warehouse of the charity association Secours populaire was broken into. The stolen goods notably included about 800 toys, destined for children in need. However, a public appeal for funds to replace the loss proved a great success.

Since people were so appalled by what had happened, the success of this appeal probably didn't come as a surprise. But what about less outrageous cases? Can we predict more generally which public appeals will succeed?

Possibly we can. The crucial criterion tends to be whether success requires everyone in the audience to heed the appeal or only some people to do so. And why? It is a classic application of the Principle of Character Diversity. If one considers a certain character trait, most likely it will be covered by this principle, which says that

The character trait is possessed by some, but not all, people.

Many public appeals serve the purpose of fundraising. And their odds of success are good: according to the principle of character diversity, some of those addressed will be generous, others won't be. But you don't need everyone to contribute, you need only some people to do so. For similar reasons, an appeal to boycott a certain company, say for environmental sins, may well succeed in hurting that company. Again, not everyone needs to take part in the boycott in order for it to have an effect.

Can we find an example of a public appeal rendered unpromising by the principle of character diversity? Imagine a country with mandatory sick pay and an alleged problem of employee absenteeism. We assume that you need to show a medical certificate but also that you can choose your doctor. There could then well be a widespread habit of feigning illness and getting a certificate from a sloppy doctor. In particular as sloppy doctors may be happy to thus take market share from more scrupulous ones. To remedy the problem, one might appeal to doctors' professional ethics. But the principle of character diversity holds true for doctors as well: some will be ethical, others won't be. The appeal is doomed to failure: for it to work, you would need all doctors to be ethical, as otherwise the work-shy can just seek out those who aren't. Any politician or trade unionist making this kind of appeal must be unfamiliar with the principle of character diversity. (Or possibly he/she accepts the absenteeism and uses the appeal as a smokescreen, hoping the public is unfamiliar with the principle.)

The principle of character diversity can be applied beyond the field of public appeals. As a final example, let's consider a state which is perceived by some of its subjects as an oppressive occupier. Imagine our state has easily the upper hand in terms of military strength but feels vulnerable to public opinion. After all, opinion tends to side with the oppressed against the oppressor, or simply with the weak against the strong. A crucial advantage the state can use here is its nature as a single coherent actor, not governed by the principle of character diversity — in contrast to the hostile subjects, some of which will have violent personalities while others won't have. The state can utilise small-scale provocations and bullying, small enough to not make the news, until some of the subjects react with acts of violence. These acts can then be denounced as terrorism, and once you have managed to label your opponents terrorists, you should find public opinion on your side.