Between bluffing and lying (from unit 6)
Is all bluffing lying? Part of the initial attractiveness, I suspect, of Carr's thesis derives from the fact that we do not regard bluffing as necessarily as bad as lying. In fact, there are degrees of bluffing which do not correspond to degrees of lying.
A businessman down on his luck who goes into an important meeting dressed in expensive looking but tasteful clothes which are in fact loaned for the day from a men's clothes-hire shop. This is a kind of bluff, but it is an acceptable bluff. In the business world, like it or not, you are judged mercilessly on first appearances.
What else can he do? If you discovered the truth — that the businessman owns one thread-bare pinstripe suit — you might raise a wry smile but you could hardly criticize him for putting his best face forward despite adverse circumstances.
A multi-national technology conglomerate is launching a new games console whose specifications are shrouded in secrecy. To put competitors off the scent, for months they have been singing the praises of the current model, despite that fact that it is common knowledge that their console has been increasingly losing market share to its more powerful rival.
Their plan is to convey the misleading impression that the new product will be a mere improvement of the current design, whereas in reality the console is a quantum leap ahead of the opposition. When the new model is finally unveiled it creates a sensation, and the competitors are wrong-footed.
In a fierce takeover battle for a supermarket chain taking place in the full glare of publicity, every bid by company A is swiftly matched by a higher bid by company B. Company A finally throw in the towel as Company B have given every impression that they have sufficient finances to continue upping the ante indefinitely.
What only the members of the Board of Company B know is that, in reality, their last bid stretched their available loan capital to the limit. In effect, they won through a successful bluff. You can only admire their ability to hold their nerve. [contd.]
