The assumption that consumers voluntarily accept or decline marketing offerings provides the ethical justification that gives marketing as a social system its license to operate. Consumer autonomy is, therefore, the key ethical principle of marketing in capitalistic economies. However, even in domains with extensive regulatory frameworks and advanced market conditions, consumers are often ill-informed or underinformed. The resultant lack of epistemic confidence diminishes consumers’ ability to make informed choices. At the same time, consumers are by default exposed to promotional content designed to persuade them to accept marketing offerings. This threatens personal autonomy. We develop a concept of consumer autonomy which marketing regulations should protect and promote to enhance informed decision-making. We design autonomy to be robust in situations where individuals are exposed to persuasive attempts to influence them to choose a specific course of action. As such, our concept of autonomy is applicable to a range of contexts beyond marketing where it is necessary to balance external influences and individual autonomy.

消费者自愿接受或拒绝营销产品的假设提供了道德依据，使营销作为一种社会制度具有经营许可。因此，消费者自治是资本主义经济中营销的关键道德原则。但是，即使在具有广泛监管框架和先进市场条件的领域中，消费者也经常是消息不足或消息不足。结果缺乏认知信心，削弱了消费者做出明智选择的能力。同时，默认情况下，消费者会接触到旨在说服他们接受营销产品的促销内容。这威胁到个人自主权。我们开发了一种消费者自治的概念，营销法规应该保护和促进这种自主性，以增强明智的决策。我们将自主权设计为在个人面临有说服力的尝试来影响他们选择特定行动方案的情况下具有强大的鲁棒性。因此，我们的自治概念适用于营销以外的各种环境，在这些环境中，必须平衡外部影响和个人自治。