A general point that I don’t have quite framed, but deciding when something is bad enough to be worth changing, especially if that change will be socially disruptive, seems to be really hard. People tend to do a lot of checking with third parties, possibly because there may be a second party who’s done a lot to present the current situation as objectively the best available.
I think this applies to whistle-blowing, emigration, and leaving jobs as well as to relationships.
A general point that I don’t have quite framed, but deciding when something is bad enough to be worth changing, especially if that change will be socially disruptive, seems to be really hard. People tend to do a lot of checking with third parties, possibly because there may be a second party who’s done a lot to present the current situation as objectively the best available.
I think this applies to whistle-blowing, emigration, and leaving jobs as well as to relationships.
Excellent point! Taps into both “sunk cost” illusions and into all of the machinery we have for maintaining alliances...