Playing Chicken

One of the things type A people do is play chicken.

Now the simple object is to see who blinks first.

You can simply stare down an opponent or you can engage in completely reckless behavior until one decides its not worth it.

Now the idea is to determine dominance and probably goes back to our primate roots.

We see this type of behavior in our ape cousins as they engage in displays trying to make opponents back down.

Its a way to win using psychological intimidation without actual physical harm.

Until neither side backs down.

Chicken is successful if one side or the other backs down.

If both refuse to back down the only available outcome is physical confrontation.

Now physical confrontation isn't the object of the game, and if it come to that the game has failed.

It works best when one side has all the advantages and knows the other side couldn't possibly engage in a confrontation.

Its pretty common in things like construction where often the deal is so important that demands can be made and generally accepted.

Of course it doesn't always work there and it ends up with labor disputes, but in general in that world, money is the driving factor and both sides come around fairly quickly.

Of course in the international arena its not as successful.

It has quite serious consequences when neither side backs down.  We like to call it brinkmanship in that arena, although its really the same old game of chicken.

The problem with it is that it only has to fail one time.