De-escalation and Social Influence- Scarcity

De-escalating conflict relies on the ability of an individual to define the frame of an interaction. The principle of scarcity states that people value more highly that which is scarce, and that generally speaking people are more motivated to avoid a lost than to achieve a gain. There are a number of ways to frame an interaction to make use of this principle.

Once communication with an agitated person is established, that connection with some one has value to the agitated person. One reason to state clearly early in the interaction your intention of helping the person, is to create and enhance this value.Establish early on that you are there to help the situation. If the person escalates in verbal aggression, let him know that continued escalation can result in ending your alliance with him.

"I am here to help you with this situation, and I need to let you know that if you continue to yell I won't be able to help you."

In a long term treatment facility, one strategy is to reminded the agitated person of the progress made (consistency principle), and continued escalation of aggression will result in loss of progress and effort made. Be careful with mentioning loss of privileges, as this will emphasize unequal power status and can escalate conflict. The emphasis is not on rewards granted, rather on goals achieved.

Along the same lines, avoid mentions of rewards for cooperation in terms of benefits granted him. Again frame it in terms of benefits achieved through his efforts.

For example, not: "If you cooperate we'll let you have extra time for visiting," rather, "You've worked hard for that extra visiting time, and you're so close."

Sometimes, letting the agitated person know that the time to act cooperative is limiting is beneficial. This is not done in terms of an ultimatum, rather in terms of options closing.

"Right now we have a number of options for dealing with this situation if we work together, we're not going to have as many options if we delay."

People are motivated to act by scarcity. Scarcity is a useful frame for de-escalating conflict, because it can be used to help the agitated person realize that communication and cooperation is the best option.