文章探讨了决策困境与内化权威之间的关系，认为当个人无法预测内化权威人物的认可行为时，就会陷入决策犹豫。作者认为，这种现象源于对内化权威人物的判断和指责的恐惧，以及不同内化权威人物之间的冲突。文章还分析了外部规则体系和意识形态的吸引力，认为它们提供了明确的外部准则，帮助人们规避内化权威的指责。文章最后探讨了自信与社会影响力之间的关系，认为自信的表达能够让人们避免内化权威的指责，并通过社会力量的暗示，获得他人认同。

🤔 **内化权威与决策犹豫：** 文章提出，当个人无法预测内化权威人物的认可行为时，就会陷入决策犹豫。这源于对内化权威人物的判断和指责的恐惧，个人担心自己的行动会遭到内化权威人物的否定，从而导致决策迟疑。 例如，当一个人面对一个选择时，他可能会考虑，如果选择A，内化权威人物X会生气，而选择B，内化权威人物Y会生气。这种内在冲突，会让他难以做出决定。 这种现象在现实生活中十分常见，比如，一些人会在工作中犹豫不决，因为他们担心自己的决定会遭到上司的批评。而另一些人则会在生活中难以做出选择，因为他们担心自己的选择会遭到父母或朋友的指责。

🤝 **外部规则体系与内化权威：** 文章认为，外部规则体系和意识形态的吸引力，在于它们提供了明确的外部准则，帮助人们规避内化权威的指责。 例如，一些人会严格遵循公司规章制度，即使这些制度并不完全合理，他们也宁愿遵守，以避免受到惩罚。这种行为，可以被理解为一种对内化权威人物的“讨好”，他们试图通过遵守外部规则，来获得内化权威人物的认可。 同样地，一些人会选择加入某个意识形态，因为他们认为这个意识形态能够提供一个明确的价值观体系，帮助他们判断对错，并避免内化权威人物的指责。

💪 **自信与社会影响力：** 文章探讨了自信与社会影响力之间的关系，认为自信的表达能够让人们避免内化权威的指责，并通过社会力量的暗示，获得他人认同。 当一个人表现出自信，并坚定地表达自己的观点时，即使他的观点并不正确，也会让人感到信服。这是因为，自信的表达，能够让人们感受到一种力量，这种力量来自于社会地位和影响力。 这种现象，可以被理解为一种社会暗示，人们会不自觉地将自信的人，与社会力量联系在一起，并认为他们的观点是正确的。因此，自信的表达，能够帮助人们规避内化权威的指责，并获得他人的认同。

🧠 **内化权威与决策困境的解决：** 了解内化权威与决策困境之间的关系，有助于我们更好地理解自己的行为，并找到解决问题的方法。 首先，我们需要意识到内化权威的存在，并尝试识别我们内化了哪些权威人物。 其次，我们需要思考这些内化权威人物对我们的影响，并尝试挑战他们对我们的指责。 最后，我们可以尝试建立自己的价值观体系，并根据自己的判断做出决定。

🧭 **内化权威与决策困境的意义：** 内化权威与决策困境，是每个人都会遇到的问题。了解这些问题，可以帮助我们更好地理解自己，并做出更明智的决策。

Published on July 6, 2024 10:10 AM GMT

A trauma book I was reading had an interesting claim that indecision is often because the person looks for the approval of an internalized authority figure (the writer is a Jungian therapist so attributed it to looking for the approval of an internalized parent, but I think it can be broader) but is unable to predict what action they would approve of.

I feel like that has some intuitive truth to it, in that when I don’t care about anyone’s opinion (or if nobody ever finds out) then it’s much easier to just pick one action and commit to it even if it might go badly. But one of the main reasons why I might struggle with that is if I fear that anyone would judge me for doing things incorrectly.

Or it can be a conflict between different internalized authority figures. “If I do this then X will be angry at me but if I do the other thing, then Y will be angry at me”. Or just the expectation that X will be angry at me no matter what I do.

This also reminds me of the way I think a big part of the appeal of various ideologies and explicit decision-making systems is that they give people a clear external ruleset that tells them what to do. Then if things go wrong, people can always appeal (either explicitly or just inside their own mind) to having followed The Right Procedure and thus being free of blame.

The most obvious external example of this is people within a bureaucracy following the rules to the letter and never deviating from them in order to avoid blame. Or more loosely, following what feels like the common wisdom – “nobody ever got fired for buying IBM”.

But those are examples of people trying to avoid blame from an existing, external authority. I think people also do a corresponding move to avoid blame from internalized authority figures – such as by trying to follow a formalized ethical rule system such as utilitarianism or deontology.

Of course, if the system is one that easily drives people off a cliff when followed (e.g. extreme utilitarianism demanding infinite self-sacrifice), this isn’t necessarily helpful. Now what was supposed to give relief from the pressures of constant inner judgment, turns into a seemingly-rigorous proof for why the person has to constantly sacrifice everything for the benefit of others.

At one point I also wondered why it is that being very confident about what you say makes you very persuasive to many people. Why should it work that you can hack persuasiveness in that way, regardless of the truth value of what you’re saying?

Then I realized that extreme confidence signals social power since others haven’t taken you down for saying clearly wrong things (even if you are saying clearly wrong things). And that means that siding with the person who’s saying those things also shields others from social punishment: they’re after all just doing what the socially powerful person does. And given that people often project their internalized authority figures into external people – e.g. maybe someone really is trying to avoid their father’s judgment, but when seeing someone very confident they see that person as being their father – that allows them to avoid internalized blame as well.

Discuss