There can be little argument that consumers are growing more suspicious of business. They question its motives, and increasingly, its marketing, which recently has been said to be manipulative. Consumers are ever more aware of the Internet pop-ups and exaggerated claims they receive in a targeted fashion, especially on social media channels.

Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law professor and former administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, recently published an essay in the Journal of Marketing Behavior that discussed how manipulation is indeed pervasive in daily life, both in public and commercial realms, and is especially prevalent in marketing. Sunstein believes “those who sell products are engaged in at least arguable forms of manipulation.”

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