3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on Perceived Power
Pulling a John McLane, Stanford Prison Experiment & Playing a Sucker
I. Pulling a John McLane
Somewhere up in Nakatomi Plaza, detective John McLane hands his pistol to terrorist mastermind Hans Gruber, who poses as a hostage. As McLane (Bruce Willis) turns his back on the criminal, Gruber (Alan Rickman) drops the charade and tries to shoot the cop. *Click* The gun isn't loaded. Nothing happens. Except McLane has just learned an awful lot about the person holding the gun.
The principle behind this Die Hard scene from 1988 might be a trope. But the game of deception and counter-deception has a real-life application. McLane runs a little experiment. Give people power over you to find out who they really are. Not any power, though. Perceived power.
If you’re interested in these kinds narrative devices, check out my recent post on 10 Storytelling Tropes You Didn't Know You Knew.
II. Stanford Prison Experiment
Perceived power is what the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment was all about. In 1971, Philip Zimbardo, psychologist and professor at Stanford University, ran a social experiment. In order to investigate the psychological effects of perceived power, he assigned college students the roles of prisoners and guards in a makeshift prison.
The experiment had to be stopped after six days. Essentially, due to the guards getting sick with power. Reportedly, they began to abuse and psychologically torture the prisoners. The inmates submitted themselves or harassed fellow prisoners who didn’t comply. Perceived power, so it seemed, revealed a harsh truth about human nature.
However, the methodology and findings of the experiment have since come under fire. It looks like the guards were instructed to act robustly and some participants deliberately helped the experiment along. While the results have never been replicated, it has inspired films such as the eponymous The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015).
III. Playing a Sucker
That doesn’t mean that the notion of perceived power is purely fictional. Here’s Robert Greene enshrining the idea into law in his infamous book about power:
Law 21: Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker — Seem Dumber Than Your Mark
No one likes feeling stupider than the next person. The trick, then, is to make your victims feel smart — and not just smart, but smarter than you are. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives.
—Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
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Have a great week,
Chris
themindcollection.com