There is a kind of counter intelligence tactic that I'm trying to figure out the term for.
Imagine you knew your boss was watching you, but your boss didn't know you were aware of him watching you. So you start acting a certain way to project the image of yourself, as an employee, that you want your boss to see.
What is this called in counter intelligence? I know there's a term, but I cannot remember the name; using secret knowledge of somebody spying on you to further your goals without them realizing.
In physics it's called the observer effect.
In the catalog of bias it is called the Hawthorne effect.
For stalkers, they call it Grey Rocking.
Interesting, thanks. This concept, "gray rocking", I've seen used by somebody I know, but in a slightly different fashion, as a means to avoid admitting he's wrong when he unequivocally loses a debate or fight with his wife or work, being otherwise outwardly hostile / overtly dominant in all aspects of life. It's like a form of shrinking from controversy, but using the exact behavior pattern that you're describing here... it's super weird, even creepy, to think about, now that I've read this.
Observing the observer.
Observer falling for mediator decoy while being observed.
Mixture of suggested assurance (about observed) and gaslighting (about observing).
Decoy effect aka asymmetrical dominance.
Could you explain the "observer falling for mediator decoy" item further?
From your perspective...internal split personality aka 1. yourself as the one observing the observer (boss); 2. yourself playing the decoy as you want to be observed; 3. using the decoy as a mirror showing what the observer observes beforehand and how he will react to it.
The observer is looking for out of ordinary behavior, hence him observing. What the decoy is used for is to manipulate the observer by suggesting him ordinary, out of ordinary in your favor, and out of ordinary as bait in his favor to then steer into your favor. Like you pretending to make the mistake he anticipates, just to imbalance him by doing something he didn't anticipate and which skews his view in your favor.
The more you do this, the more you gaslight him to question himself, which then opens him up for you to reassure him with however you want to be seen as.
From his perspective... he knows the ordinary work routine and looks for any deviation from it. Since he suspects foul play when observing, he likely uses bait to tempt the observed, since he doesn't want to waste his time observing without satisfying his suspicions.
His knowledge about the ordinary represents his weak point, which is where your decoy is set-up. He doesn't suspect the ordinary to be manipulated; instead he looks for you acting out of it aka doing something you wouldn't normally do.
In short...MEDIA (Latin medius; middle)...the middle in-between observer and observed represents the ordinary, the status quo of your work relationship (boss/employee); the shared foundation of your coexistence, the suggested habitation for intelligence operations...that's your battlefield; that's where baits and decoys are being set; while everyone wears a mask (public over private).
Lmfao this is some next level fuckery, the unbalancing gaslighting bit.
Forced perspective.
I feel like this should be the term, since it basically describes exactly what I'm talking about, but when I looked this up all I found was all kinds of stuff about visual forced perspective, like in movies and photography. For some reason I couldn't find anything related to intel, etc. do you have any links specifically?
What you found was the real definition.
I re-purposed it for this application.
I would say social media is another way of forcing a perspective. Only showing the happy moments, the good food, the new items, etc.. forcing others to see you in a way you've chosen, not how you are.
Ah, I gotcha - that's a great repurposing. Forced Perspective, a counter-intel tactic.
reverse honeypot? reverse limited hang-out?
Could be the case. In searching for "reverse honeypot", I just ended up on some Game of Thrones forum, reading this hilarious post about how Bronn from Game of Thrones is secretly, and perhaps unknowingly, bisexual. Apparently "reverse honeypot" is also a literary/cinematic term, meaning something to the effect of "unintentional stories that exist within other stories".
Unrelated, but landing on that forum reminded me of how awesome the Internet used to be when a lot of browsing time was spent on basic, old fashioned style forums. I think old fashioned forums sharpen your mind. You are forced to read a lot more instead of having everything neatly aggregated, which forces you to filter out information and increases reading comprehension. I have definitely become less intelligent in some ways as a result of the decrease in difficulty of acquiring information. We just don't have to do the work anymore, so it's kind of like using a calculator to do every math problem; you're gonna lose your math skills.
Sort of an anti-panopticon, you mean?
Kind of, more like the resulting counterattack though, feel like there is a word for this tactic but I cannot remember what the hell it is. I think maybe decoy is the closest thing I've seen so far, but it's still not ringing a bell.
The thing that got me thinking of this is when I was trying to imagine a benevolent version of the US military not acknowledging the Chinese balloon until it was talked about by observers on the ground. I was imagining how, if I was in charge, right when I saw the balloon heading my direction I would inform people on the ground to turn off certain things and turn other things on, to confuse the enemy.
A panopticon is set up to not allow resistance, to not even allow affirmation of being observed.
The trick...ones optics (perceiving) represent the center of everything (perceivable), so others suggest a center for everything (pan-) that isn't oneself. This tempts one to ignore ones perceivable surroundings for attempting to view oneself through the lens of the suggested observer.
Malicious compliance is related. Strategic incompetence is also related.
Thanks. Even though I haven't come across any responses that immediately ring a bell as to the original phrase/term that I was trying to remember, I've learned quite a bit just from looking up some of these responses.
Actually, I did not even know there was such a term as "malicious compliance", but I did this exact thing back in the day. I worked for a bank call center when I was younger, and we had these really strict guidelines for reversing fees. I hated the bank and thought they were pure evil, so I would always try to find a way to reverse as many fees as I could. anyway, I found this loophole in our very long and very specific/descriptive computerized manual. I started using the loophole exactly to the letter, and I had this manager spying on me who came over to ask me what I was doing, so I showed him in the manual where it said exactly what to do, and the look on his face was priceless. He said something along the lines of "you know exactly what you're doing".
Nicely done
Thanks. Fuckin banks…
Acting?
I think acting would be a close superset of the specific term, but i'm looking for a specific term or phrase.
"Perception Management"
I would say that's a decent term for a superset of the specific behavior.
it's a military term
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_management
Yeah, I just mean that military term is a generic term for the generic concept that encompasses all the marketing style strategies, whereas I'm looking for the specific term for the concept described in the op.
Manipulating the weak minded.
Also a superset of the specific behavior, IMHO.
Brainfucks. Use them on all the people above you and below you. Walk into the grocery store brainfucking.
Meaning, dont be gray man. Be alpha. Walk tall. Scan all situations. Listening, an art.
I've learned that eyeball to eyeball talking, scares the shit out of the weak minded, so try that.
Listening, the art, opens up all kinds of avenues. Did you know a human brain can think 10 times faster than it can talk? Everyone takes that time to form a response. Instead, study and eyeball and actually listen. They blow up before your eyes.
it could very well be that I'm thinking of this, even though it doesn't ring a bell right off hand.