#234: Intimidation Triad, Gessler’s Hat & the Cognitive Dissonance Trap
3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on Power & Obedience
I. Intimidation Triad
How can an authority enforce obedience?
…asks Professor of Game Theory Christian Rieck in his Methods of Intimidation talk. Due to limited resources, it’s usually impractical to punish every pesky little disobedient underling who doesn’t play by your new arbitrary rule. So Rieck distinguishes three mechanisms of coercive control. I call it the Intimidation Triad.
Random intimidation: People are selected and punished at random. This creates unpredictable fear through uncertainty in everyone else. The downside: If a dictator’s resources are scarce, they probably won’t be able to intimidate enough people. The probability of being punished for the average person is simply too low.
Selective intimidation: People’s behaviour is reviewed in a predefined order, such as by way of an alphabetical list. You know when it’s going to be your turn, so you don’t misbehave. This creates a sense that everyone has a much higher probability of being punished and is therefore more effective.
Pearl Harbour Effect: Selectively making powerful, highly-publicised examples of disobedient individuals. Turning a punishment into a nationwide spectacle creates an eerie feeling: “Oh boy, this could happen to me.” It’s more of a bluff, though, as the resources to punish everyone are still not there. But it works. Until it doesn’t. The disproportionate punishment can create a backlash because people have had enough.
According to Rieck, attempts to use such methods to intimidate citizens in a democracy must be opposed early on:
Once the system has entered a state of oppression, it is the end of democracy because it is irreversible.
II. Gessler’s Hat
There’s a fourth method of intimidation I hinted at above. And it doesn’t quite fit the triad. You know the famous Swiss legend of William Tell shooting an apple off his son’s head. But can you tell how Tell got there? He failed to bow to Gessler’s Hat.
According to the legend of William Tell, a local Austrian official named Albrecht Gessler set up his hat on a pole in the town square. He ordered all locals to bow to it as a symbol of obedience to Austrian rule. Refusing to bow was seen as insubordination. When strong-willed Will walked by and refused to bow, he was arrested and eventually forced to shoot the infamous apple off his son’s head to go free.
Gessler’s Hat became a symbol of arbitrary authority and forced compliance. It also serves as a warning of how those in power sometimes test submission through meaningless acts of obedience.
III. Cognitive Dissonance Trap
The Cognitive Dissonance Trap is an intuitive term for how mental dissonance can entangle us in a web of twisted rationalisation. Because once we comply with a degrading demand, it doesn’t feel pretty.
I know it was ridiculous and humiliating to greet the hat. But I did it anyway.
To reconcile the two contradicting sentiments, we often rationalise it as acceptable to reduce psychological discomfort:
We all did it. Besides, I only did it once. And hey, it was good bowing practice.
Sadly, this makes future obedience easier. So next time an authority asks something ridiculous, watch out for your brain trapping itself.
Oh, I almost forgot: Tell hit the apple, was imprisoned anyway, but later escaped. So if you do challenge power, you’d better have exceptional skill. 🐘
Have a great week,
Chris
themindcollection.com