Project definition
M05 | Frontstage and backstage
How audiences, approval from norms, and responsibility change public and private interaction.
Our view. An invisible third party may stand between two people: colleagues, friends, an organization, onlookers, or rules both accept. Justification and Disregard describe different ways of relying on that approval. Audiences, evidence, and consequences can in turn change how the pair express themselves.
We ask who needs a defensible account, who vouches for whom, who undercuts the other in public, and whether their private agreement can bear the consequences of becoming public. A shared account can aid coordination or conceal facts. The actual behavior must be described alongside it.
An invented scene. The Broker prepares an explanation of the distribution that every party can accept. The Opportunist bluntly names who receives more. This can be a comic interruption or the start of questions about an unequal allocation. Without behavior that needs defending, direct wording alone cannot establish Disregard.
Writing prompts: What do they know privately? How much is each willing to admit publicly?
Research paths: impression management and moral disengagement. S12, S13. These concern presentation and self-restraint respectively. This method does not combine them into ready-made measurement evidence for Justification and Disregard.