CentralFlorida-Living Blog: My World: Together we can change the world! (Yeah. I know it sounds like a song from the '60s.)

Did you ever stop to think that Realtors might have a duty to their fellow man beyond simply selling houses and ensuring that the transactions proceed smoothly? Well, there's nothing in the Code of Ethics which states that we do and we certainly don't learn about it in any classes, but I'd argue that we have an affirmative duty to set good examples for our fellow humans.

Here's why: We jointly make our living by strategically positioning ourselves at the intersection between supply and demand. We are able to retain this position because we repeatedly demonstrate that we are able to add value to the transactions we facilitate. This added value has to do with our expertise and reliability and we're usually well compensated for these traits.

What if we weren't reliable? What if we didn't demonstrate any expertise and almost always did a shoddy, haphazard job as a group? People wouldn't hire us and our profession would disappear. You see, we have a financial interest in providing expertise and reliability. This self-interest actually goes much farther than the real estate transaction. It extends into our personal and public lives. The more people respect us, individually and jointly, the more likely they are to use our services. The better our character, the more people respect us.

It's simply good business and life practice. It somehow reminds me of something I read in an old book somewhere. I think it went something like, "...treat others the way you'd like to be treated..." This principle extends farther than simply dealing with others, it also implies that if you demonstrate good character, you will be able to view yourself in a positive light and this will lead to greater personal happiness.

The reason I'm expounding on this idea is that I was recently reminded of a series of psychological studies which had to do with people's response to "authority." In these experiments, volunteers were told to give an electric shock to a person in another room. They couldn't actually see the other person and, in fact, the other person was never actually shocked. When the volunteer would push the button, though, the person in the other room would exclaim out loud and the volunteer could hear them. The study showed that, if the authority figure told the volunteer to set the electricity at a dangerous or even obviously fatal level, the majority of the volunteers would unquestioningly "shock" the subject, even when he screamed loudly. An obvious parallel can be found in the documented behavior of prison camp guards in past wars.

Most of us would agree with the war crimes tribunals that have tried such individuals.  Following orders is no excuse.  Sadistic brutality is just that, regardless of orders or not. As humans, we always have a choice.  We can stand up against orders and situations we know are wrong, or we can allow ourselves to be intimidated and just go along.  Sometimes it's a difficult choice that can lead to personal inconvenience.  This is where people who are moral relativists almost always knuckle under.

The power of this choice has been demonstrated experimentally. When volunteers see just one person refusing to mistreat a subject, about 90% of them will also refuse, even though the act is sanctioned by authority figures. As a group, most of us really do understand the difference between right and wrong!

Now, pair this finding with the fact that studies at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have demonstrated that when just 10 percent of of a population holds a strong belief, that belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society. This 10% point is the tipping point where a society can move from bad to good or, unfortunately, from good to bad.

An early study showed that local crime rates soared about 10 years after television came to small, isolated towns in northern Canada. This is rather chilling when you think about how many acts of violence are portrayed during the average TV program. Information published by the University of Michigan indicates that the average child will see 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders on TV and it's been repeatedly shown in a large number of studies that children model their behavior to a certain extent on what they see on TV.

Likewise, people model their behavior to a certain extent on what they see other people doing. Most of us have probably seen the recent commercials on TV which portray an individual seeing another doing a good deed. That person does a good deed for another person and eventually the chain circles around to the original individual. That's how it actually works in reality. It doesn't happen instantaneously and there are a lot of breaks in the chain, but given enough time, society will actually change for the better.

The population of Realtors is large enough that we can jointly have a very positive effect on society, if we think about our behavior and act in such a way that we provide positive role models for others. If we'd each take that attitude, we might find that our career of selling houses could change the world for the better.

I want to ask you to do me a favor: Don't reject the concept out-of-hand. Take a few hours or days to think it over. We can make a difference!

Namaste!