Kenobi Ep. 4: “I hope you like pain”
Hardball Tactics in Negotiation
Everyone has heard of “hardball tactics” in negotiation. Hardball tactics are designed to pressure the other party into an agreement favorable to your side, ideally more favorable (at least in the short term) than you would have gotten through more cooperative bargaining. Familiar examples of hardball tactics include insults, silence, emotional displays, and shows of aggression and force.
But did you know that hardball tactics also include less obviously negative moves? Flattery, flirting, appealing to relationship, and other “soft” approaches also count as hardball tactics. Social psychologists have described the range of hardball tactics (sometimes called “contentious tactics”) along a spectrum of light to heavy (for more on this, check out Social Conflict: Escalation, Stalemate, and Settlement by Dean Pruitt, Sung Hee Kim, and Jeffrey Rubin). Flattery would be on the lighter end, threats of violence on the heavier end.
Light and heavy tactics can escalate conflict—sometimes so much so that agreement becomes impossible—and so negotiators must be cautious when using hardball maneuvers.
Hardball Tactics in Star Wars Negotiations: Kenobi Episode IV
Star Wars negotiations often include use of hardball maneuvers. Even so, Episode IV of Obi-Wan Kenobi stands out. The episode provides numerous examples of hardball tactics in negotiation, and Reva’s interrogation of Leia is especially fascinating. Note that their interaction is a negotiation because Reva cannot compel Leia to provide the information Reva wants. Instead, she must negotiate for the information, and in this negotiation, Reva uses a variety of hardball tactics.
Reva’s hardball tactics include the following:
Legal posturing. Reva informs Leia that she has “no rights” in the Fortress and indeed has broken the law (as a “Jedi sympathizer”). This legal posturing is, at least in part, an effort to convince Leia to cooperate by eroding her moral conviction in protecting those helping the Jedi.
Plays for solidarity and sympathy. Several times during their conversation, Reva suggests that she and Leia are a lot alike—they both act brave when they’re afraid, they both had droids as young people, they both are on the same side. Reva also hints that she has experienced some sort of personal tragedy (“everything taken away from me”). In making these plays for solidarity and sympathy, Reva is trying to form an alliance (perhaps based on ingroup dynamics) or spark some compassionate response that could lead to Leia giving up the information.
Making Leia feel alone. Reva tells Leia that Obi-Wan is dead and will not be rescuing her. She also blames Obi-Wan’s death on the sympathizers, an assertion intended to serve the double purpose of alienating Leia from the sympathizers and convincing her that the sympathizers aren’t going to rescue her. “The only person who can save you now, Leia, is you,” she says. Since Leia’s only bargaining chip is the information, Reva suggests that telling Reva what she wants to know is Leia’s only way to get herself out of this situation.
Making Leia feel like she can help. Reva correctly guesses that Leia is naturally inclined toward helping others and thus frames part of her argument as an appeal for help. Reva shares that they’ve learned something about “a path” and that they need more information to be able to make progress on their investigation. Asking for help can be a form of normative leverage, as discussed in an earlier post.
When none of these lighter tactics work, Reva gets a little heavier. First, Reva tries the mind probe (invasive and painful) but gets nowhere. Second, Reva gets angry when Leia asks to contact her father before sharing any information about the sympathizers. Finally, Reva threatens violence. “I hope you like pain,” she snarls, in an effort to frighten Leia into submission. Leia does not submit, so Reva sends her to an adjoining room where the long terrifying windup of events—bringing in the stormtroopers, getting strapped in the chair, having pointy metal arms slowly wend their way toward Leia’s head—serves as yet another heavy contentious tactic before moving to the heaviest tactic of all, actual torture.
Competitive Negotiation: Focus On Your Own Goals
Throughout the entire scene, Reva attempts to “win” the negotiation by escalating the conflict using hardball tactics. She has no interest in meeting any of Leia’s needs; in fact, returning Leia to Alderaan would likely be career suicide for Reva (and if the first four episodes of Kenobi have taught us anything, it’s that Reva is very interested in professional advancement). Indeed, when negotiators use hardball tactics, they typically are focused primarily on their own goals.
Leia also is trying to “win” the negotiation, in the sense that she wants to go home and has no intention of cooperating with the Inquisitors on this matter. Her efforts are mostly on the lighter side (attempting to look helpless, seeming to agree to cooperate, trying to use Reva’s statement “we are all on the same side” to her advantage), which makes sense given her relative powerlessness in the situation.
Hardball Negotiation Tactics: Effectiveness and Backlash
Would torture, the heaviest tactic of all, have worked? Leia is rescued before we find out. Generally speaking, though, torture is not only immoral but also unreliable when it comes to gathering intelligence. Reva may not care about morality but she probably does care about reliability, which may be why she doesn’t go to the heavy end of the spectrum right away.
And let’s keep in mind that even when some people don’t care about morality, others do care—which means that when Reva and others behave immorally, other people who see this behavior may experience revulsion and disgust that can spark dissent, destroy relationships, and even foment rebellion. That’s the story of Tala, after all … and also of Star Wars itself.
