The 48 Laws of Power · law 31 of 48
31. Control the Options: Get Others to Play With the Cards You Deal
framing
The principle
The best deceptions are the ones that seem to give the other person a choice — your victims feel they are in control but are actually your puppets.
The application
Frame two acceptable choices and remove every other. The person picks one and feels autonomous; you have eliminated the option you did not want regardless of what they pick. This is how senior people negotiate.
The defensive tell — how to spot it being run on you
When a proposal arrives with exactly two options framed as if those are the only two, the third option is almost always the one being hidden. Ask: what would option C look like? If they refuse to name it, you have found the move.