The Ruler’s Flattery Game: Screening, Conformity, and Informational Collapse

• In Event: Strategic Dynamics of Authoritarian Rule

Brief Overview

A formal model of political flattery reveals how dictators use cults to screen loyalty at the cost of information gathering, and how conformity cascades and collective delusion make truth-telling perilous under autocracy.

Authors

• Zhaomin Li, University of Washington, Seattle Campus

• Tongtian Xiao, University of Washington