ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the manner and extent to which modern consumer behavior could be said to involve moral ideas and ethical norms. It considers briefly the two principal means through which moral and ethical ideas are implicated in consumer behavior, that is institutionalized roles and internalized values. The idea that the market and morality have a close and intimate connection is hardly new. The chapter argues that moral ideas and ethical considerations enter into human conduct in two very different yet complementary ways; that is, as forces that work from within and as forces that work from without. Areas of human activity that were not subject to purely commercial pressures but were instead largely governed by ethical and moral norms. Their inclusion into the marketplace can thus be said to represent a significant "de-moralization" of society.
