Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The article explores deceptive business practices used by traders and psychological manipulations used by media, which aim is to form insecure individuals and exploit their weaknesses. This paper also provides an overview of regulations that seek to protect consumers from these types of behavior by traders. Foucault sees man as a being who is not free, enslaved by the roles imposed on him by economic monopolists. His role in society is to serve their enrichment, and any resistance leads to a loss of status in society. At the same time, the identity of the obedient and well-trained consumer, who responds to demands to constantly prove his social status and the role imposed on him, is the only one he manages to build. As a result of the study, the authors came to the conclusion, economic monopolists use media messages to manipulate the fear of social rejection, the desire to achieve happiness and to be successful and desirable in the eyes of others. In parallel, they promote addiction and unrealistic expectations about easy enrichment, status, and desirability. The goal is to manipulate the mass, to form the identity of consumers and addicts who serve their enrichment. This position of the consumer justifies the need for legal protection of his interests and the sanctioning of certain behaviors of traders that prevent the consumer from making a free, informed, and safe decision about the final purchase.
Authors: Ana Slavković, Vukan Slavković
Institution: University of Novi Sad
Language: English
Topic: Foucault, Power, and Ethics
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4410075181