Do threats work on you? One of the reasons I expect threats to be ineffective is that when I am threatened, I am less likely to comply, even for significant costs. Or at least it feels like that, to be completely sure that no bias is obscuring my experiences I would have to make some statistics.
Threats are certainly a data point that I factor in when making a decision. I, too, have been known to apply altruistic punishment to people making unwarranted threats. But I also consider whether the person feels so threatened that the threat may actually be just a sign of their insecurity. And there are always times when going along with the threat is simply easier than bothering to fight that particular issue.
Do you reallyalways buck threats? Even when justified—such a “threatened consequences” for stupid actions on your part? Even from, say, police officers?
I didn’t say that I always bucked threats, but that in most cases I am less likely to do what the person wants if a threat is added. I have never been threatened by police officers.
I suppose I would cave to a threat if it was sufficiently strong and credible, but on the whole threats have always made me dramatically less likely to comply. I might try to justify it by arguing that it reduces people’s incentive to threaten me in future, and hopefully I’ve reached a point now where I could reasonably weigh the expected utility of that in making my decision, but for most of my life the bottom line is that I’ve done it out of sheer contrariness. I would frequently sabotage my own interests in order to defy others’ demands or expectations of me.
This applied not only to threats and bribes, but even acts that were meant to be purely to my benefit, to punish people for trying to anticipate my desires.
Since I never rebelled in typical teenage ways, I had to find my own original ways to be difficult.
This applied not only to threats and bribes, but even acts that were meant to be purely to my benefit, to punish people for trying to anticipate my desires.
Is it the anticipation of your desires that you try to punish or something more specific to trying to force their anticipations onto you? I ask because most people spend significant social effort to train others into anticipating their desires.
I suppose it was really more the latter than the former that I was reacting to, but my conscious interpretation of it was as a backlash against having my desires be understandable to others, and therefore manipulable.
Do threats work on you? One of the reasons I expect threats to be ineffective is that when I am threatened, I am less likely to comply, even for significant costs. Or at least it feels like that, to be completely sure that no bias is obscuring my experiences I would have to make some statistics.
Threats are certainly a data point that I factor in when making a decision. I, too, have been known to apply altruistic punishment to people making unwarranted threats. But I also consider whether the person feels so threatened that the threat may actually be just a sign of their insecurity. And there are always times when going along with the threat is simply easier than bothering to fight that particular issue.
Do you really always buck threats? Even when justified—such a “threatened consequences” for stupid actions on your part? Even from, say, police officers?
I didn’t say that I always bucked threats, but that in most cases I am less likely to do what the person wants if a threat is added. I have never been threatened by police officers.
I suppose I would cave to a threat if it was sufficiently strong and credible, but on the whole threats have always made me dramatically less likely to comply. I might try to justify it by arguing that it reduces people’s incentive to threaten me in future, and hopefully I’ve reached a point now where I could reasonably weigh the expected utility of that in making my decision, but for most of my life the bottom line is that I’ve done it out of sheer contrariness. I would frequently sabotage my own interests in order to defy others’ demands or expectations of me.
This applied not only to threats and bribes, but even acts that were meant to be purely to my benefit, to punish people for trying to anticipate my desires.
Since I never rebelled in typical teenage ways, I had to find my own original ways to be difficult.
Is it the anticipation of your desires that you try to punish or something more specific to trying to force their anticipations onto you? I ask because most people spend significant social effort to train others into anticipating their desires.
I suppose it was really more the latter than the former that I was reacting to, but my conscious interpretation of it was as a backlash against having my desires be understandable to others, and therefore manipulable.
Intriguing.