How to Decouple from Deceptive People and Sources
De-Culting Strategies
Drawing from Robert Axelrod’s "Evolution of Cooperation," you could approach the problem of dealing with habitual liars or deceptive sources by employing strategies based on game theory, particularly the repeated Prisoner's Dilemma. Here’s how you might adapt some of those strategies to decouple from deceptive sources:
1. Tit for Tat (Reciprocity Strategy)
This strategy is straightforward: you cooperate as long as the other party cooperates, but if they lie or deceive, you defect (stop trusting or engaging). In practice, this means:
If a source tells the truth, continue to engage with them.
If they lie, cut off communication or engagement immediately.
If they correct their behavior, cautiously re-engage after an extended period.
Application: If a news outlet or person lies, stop consuming their information for a set period and only consider re-engaging if they demonstrate consistent truth-telling over time.
2. Grim Trigger (One Strike and You're Out)
This is a more punitive strategy. Once a defection (lie) occurs, you never cooperate again. Essentially, the relationship or engagement ends permanently.
One serious lie means severing the connection forever.
This works best for sources that have significant power or influence, where one defection can cause massive harm or manipulation.
Application: If a news source lies about a critical issue, you permanently stop following them and encourage others to do the same.
3. Win-Stay, Lose-Shift
This strategy involves maintaining your current approach as long as the source is reliable, but once they lie, you shift tactics—perhaps by fact-checking everything they say or consulting other sources.
If the source continues to deceive, further decouple by reducing engagement.
This allows flexibility without immediate drastic measures, but escalates if the lying persists.
Application: You could keep following a source as long as they maintain truthful reporting, but after detecting lies, shift to consulting alternative outlets more frequently, and gradually reduce reliance on the deceptive source.
4. Pavlov Strategy (Testing Trust)
This strategy involves rewarding truthful behavior and punishing deceit. However, after punishing the source for lying, you test their behavior to see if they reform.
If the source lies, penalize them by disengaging.
Later, cautiously check back in to see if they have corrected their ways. If they lie again, the penalties get progressively harsher.
Application: This could mean temporarily disengaging from a lying source, and if they seem to reform, slowly reintegrating them into your media diet—but with a skeptical eye and ready to penalize further infractions.
5. Forgiving Tit for Tat (Forgive but Verify)
A more forgiving version of Tit for Tat allows for re-engagement after a certain period or after corrective behavior. However, it’s important to verify whether the source has taken steps to restore trustworthiness.
Re-engage only after the source acknowledges and corrects its past deception.
If it lies again, further disengage for a longer period or permanently.
Application: If a source is called out for lying and they issue a public apology or retraction, you might cautiously re-engage, but only after seeing sustained improvements in their reporting.
6. Public Accountability (Collective Strategy)
Create a public strategy that incentivizes sources to maintain honesty by holding them accountable collectively.
Start or join movements to label deceptive sources as untrustworthy.
Make public your decision to decouple from specific outlets that engage in deceit.
Encourage others to follow the same strategy, creating a network effect where deceivers lose audiences or reputational capital.
Application: If a particular news outlet is known for spreading lies, publicly call them out and organize or participate in campaigns to reduce their influence. Use social media or other public forums to encourage others to decouple from the source as well.
By combining these strategies, you can gradually or decisively decouple from liars or deceptive sources. Axelrod’s work shows that cooperation can thrive when defection is punished effectively, and these strategies should promote accountability while protecting you from manipulation.