Game Theory in the News: Russia and Ukraine (Credibility)

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Everyone wants their threats, promises, and assurances taken more seriously. But how? Think in terms of certainty. If people were more certain you’d fire them, reward them, support them, or successfully compete against them, you’d increase your bargaining power. We see this play out in the Russia Ukraine conflict. The more certain people are that … Read more

Developing Power in Game of Thrones

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Reward Power and Coercive Power Reward power comes from offering positive or negative rewards in exchange for cooperation. Right off the bat we see a major source of power. The dragon. The dragon is a form of coercive power, but Dany uses it in an unexpected way. Instead of just giving the dragon up, or … Read more

11 Examples of Priming In Real Life

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What is Priming? The world is full of many types of sensory input. For example, hundreds of cars are all around when we drive on the free way. Humans have to sort through all this input every second, and decide what is relevant. The person driving consistently in front of you won’t grab your brain’s … Read more

Can you Learn to be Manipulative?

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Answer: Yes. Manipulation is a skill like any other. First you learn how it works. Then you practice each skill that makes up manipulation. Finally you put those elements together into easy to use processes. Learn how Manipulation Works Manipulation gets a bad rap. Skills of Manipulation Manipulation includes many different skills. Here are a … Read more

How Attention Works

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At their core, all attention techniques are promises. You are promising to share something of value, if they trade their attention. The key is to match your promise to something people are interested in, something they want. For example, a promise to share what happened at work is going to be more interesting to your … Read more

How to Make a Narcissist Respect or Fear Me

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How Respect Works Respect is built on two social motives. First is desire for status and second is the need to belong or connect. Status elevation and liking contribute to respect. Status can be elevated by lowering other people’s status through insults or competition, or it can be elevated through demonstrating competence. Liking is closely … Read more