Influencing and Bullying
We sway our co-workers. We coach teams. We cajole our spouses and we parent our kids. But what characterizes this behavior over more overt and negative forms of influencing, such as bullying? It’s a question very much worth exploring since we are all bullies at some point — much more so than we tend to think of ourselves. And, not surprisingly, this goes hand-in-hand with deceit. From the NYT: WHAT is the chance that you could get someone to lie for you? What about vandalizing public property at your suggestion? Most of us assume that others would go along with such schemes only if, on some level, they felt comfortable doing so. If not, they’d simply say “no,” right? Yet research suggests that saying “no” can be more difficult than…