1. Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures
  2. School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science
  3. Applied Ethics

Applied Ethics

Ethical Dating Online: formulating a sector-wide user-centred policy for dating apps

Dr Luke Brunning and Dr Natasha McKeever

The ‘Ethical Dating Online’ project works with the dating-app industry, relationship educators, and policy makers to improve the experience of users of online dating apps. Thus far the project has developed a promising advisory relationship with the major online dating app company, Feeld (https://feeld.co/the-app) aimed at encouraging the company to take leadership around avoiding AI in online dating, and shaping the general values-based landscape of the business. The project leads have also worked with relationship support charity Brook to shape educational materials (for KS5 students and on social media), to encourage younger people to think about their dating app use. They have an ongoing relationship with the Online Dating and Discovery Association (trade association for dating apps), to encourage them to revise their ethical standards, making them more demanding and applicable to AI use. EDO has achieved significant media coverage since the project began (much of this is linked-to on the project website www.ethicaldatingonline.com). The leads have written opinion articles, provided comment to many publications, featured on the radio (local and national), spoken on podcasts, filmed a segment for BBC television, consulted with other TV producers, and written a widely-covered open letter. Taken together these conversations and interventions have helped to change public perception of some of the core issues with online dating, and drawn new attention to emerging technological issues, such as proposed uses of generative AI on dating apps. The EDO network, and its organisers, are the go-to voices on this topic. 

Promoting ethical practice in the solicitors' profession

Dr Jim Baxter

Responding to a request by the Law Society of England and Wales, prompted by a call from their members for more support on ethical matters, and in the light of increased scrutiny on the profession following the Post Office and infected blood scandals, Jim Baxter and IDEA, The Ethics Centre’s Consultancy and Training Team have developed an Ethical Practice Framework for In-House Solicitors. This is presented by the Law Society as best practice for its c. 36,000 members, who work in organisations of all sizes and types across all sectors. Its impact is at two levels: 1) supporting solicitors to fulfil their professional obligations and 2) enabling them to support their organisations in achieving their objectives within legal and ethical parameters. The Framework has been well received by the Law Society and positive feedback have been received from a wide range of stakeholders and organisations nationally and internationally (such as Ofcom, HSBC, Google and others). Read more here https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/ethics-framework-to-empower-in-house-community/5123271.article.

Developing public health professionals' argument analysis skills for enhanced ethical engagement with stakeholders

Dr Sean Sinclair

How can we improve the quality of debating about core policy issues among professionals? This project lead by Dr Sean Sinclair in the IDEA Centre aims to train professional practitioners from a range of fields in enhanced practical and analytical understanding of ethical values in debate. It involved running workshops to develop course participants' skills of argument analysis, especially in relation to ethics. Participants are public health professionals. They are enabled to use those skills to interact more effectively with stakeholders and/or produce a tangible output such as a report.

The workshops were preceded by an extended period of research work by Sinclair, to develop the initial course materials. This research was a hybrid project, combining empirical work with philosophical work. The empirical work involved analysing the arguments that have appeared in public debates about public health, and using this analysis to understand the values that motivate people on each side of the debates. The philosophical work involved assessing the arguments by raising objections to them, and determining whether proponents of a view could rebut them. The project has three phases:

  • First in 2023/24: a sequence of meetings with an advisory panel consisting of around 24 Public Health Directors and 6 or so academics from different universities. They examined and advised on both the content and method of delivery of the workshops.
  • Second in 2024/25: The materials were delivered by means of four courses run with a total of 57 junior public health professionals: 10 x Scotland. 22 x Wales. 15 x Yorkshire. 10 x rest of UK. Participants will be public health practitioners, mainly registrars and consultants.
  • Finally, in 2025/26  we have a planned sequence of workshops for the ethics Special Interest Group of the Faculty of Public Health.