Commitment
Deliberately giving up some of your own options so that others can rely on what you are going to do.
Often misread asConfusing commitment with resolve, so that stating something very firmly counts as having committed.
How to see it
Making it impossible to change your mind, on purpose
Because a threat is only believed if you would carry it out, you can gain by destroying your own options. Burning the bridge behind you removes retreat, and that is precisely why the other side now believes you will fight.
The checkA commitment is real only if it changes what you are able to do, or what it would cost you to back out; words that leave your options intact change nothing.
Try itIn burning the boats, remove the option of retreat and recompute the opponent's best response. If their behaviour does not change, the commitment bought you nothing and was not worth making.
Games that show it
Know these first
Leads on to
Easily confused with
Sources
- Schelling, T. (1960). Harvard University Press.
- Dixit, A. & Nalebuff, B. (1991). W. W. Norton.