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.