Today’s task is to figure how an actor adjusts his PValues and P3Values to an act of gossip. Here’s the initiating statement:
Subject gossips to DirObject that 4Actor has pValue of honest for 5Actor of 6Quantifier with certainty 7Quantifier.
DirObject must react in three ways:
1. To Subject: if Subject’s statement deviates too far from DirObject’s value, then DirObject should reduce his pHonest for Subject.
2. To 5Actor: DirObject should alter his pValue for 5Actor by a degree proportionate to 4Actor’s pValue, depending on the degree to which DirObject trusts Subject and likes 4Actor.
3. To 4Actor: DirObject should alter his pValue to 4Actor, but what should be the nature of this alteration? Should DirObject alter his pGood value of 4Actor based on whether 4Actor lauded or denigrated 5Actor, and the degree to which DirObject likes or dislikes 5Actor? Or should DirObject alter his pHonest value for 4Actor based on the difference between the p3Trust value that he already has and the value being reported? I don’t think this latter is good, as its truth value depends entirely on the honesty of Subject. DirObject can’t blame 4Actor if Subject lies.
Let’s examine this third decision from the viewpoint of other emotions. Suppose, for example, that the emotion being reported is pGood. In this case, it’s pretty clear that DirObject should alter his pGood for 4Actor based on his own pGood for 5Actor. In the case of pPower, though, things are different. If 4Actor has a very different pPower value than DirObject, that should alter DirObject’s pPower towards 4Actor. “4Actor must be quite a wimp to be intimidated by 5Actor!”
Here’s another interesting issue: should these changes be made as adjustments or recalculations? An adjustment is a calculation that automatically includes the actor’s accordance value; a recalculation does not.
I think alteration 1 should be an adjustment; DirObject’s suspiciousness plays an important role here. However, it affects only DirObject’s pHonest value for Subject.
Alteration 2 should not be done as an adjustment, because it in no way depends on DirObject’s accordance.
Alteration 3 should not also be done as an adjustment.
