Manipulated and Masked Mental Models
👭Deliberate narrative shaping to preserve power or control across social layers
The final category, Manipulated and Masked Mental Models, is charted — showing how the practice of narrative control to preserve power spans families, organisations, governments, and global relations. This category rightly sits as cross-cutting, because it operates at every level where perception, trust, and power converge.
Stories we hide or mask from others to mislead or manipulate represent a deliberate shaping of mental models — not just our own, but others’ as well. This behavior can occur across all levels, but its intentional nature means it’s especially relevant in contexts where power, perception, and control are central.
Where It Fits:
Rather than a single level, this category cuts across all levels — but is especially prevalent in:
- Siblings & Families: Emotional manipulation to maintain family roles or favoritism.
- Organisations: Leadership or staff masking intentions to maintain control or avoid accountability.
- Governments/Nations: Propaganda, performative harmony, or suppression of dissent to preserve legitimacy.
- Global: Donor nations controlling narratives about development aid or interventions.
Sample Situations:
| System Level | Masking Behavior |
|---|---|
| Individual | Hiding vulnerability to maintain authority or self-image |
| Family | One sibling gaslighting another to maintain status or influence |
| Organisation | Justifying policies by masking economic interests as a public good |
| Government | Justifying policies by masking economic interests as public good |
| Global | Framing extractive development partnerships as “mutual benefit” |
Assumption: “Truth must be controlled to maintain order or advantage. Transparency weakens authority.”
Self-discipline: Distinguish between protection and manipulation; surface the cost of hidden agendas to relational trust and system integrity.
Surfacing this allows new appreciation and empathy for each other’s journeys.
Systems Thinking Research & Leadership Development Institute (STRLDi) 