{"id":49091,"date":"2021-10-02T05:40:49","date_gmt":"2021-10-02T09:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=49091"},"modified":"2021-10-04T05:25:05","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T09:25:05","slug":"mutual-reinforcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/","title":{"rendered":"Mutual Reinforcement Is Damaging Your Organization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is mutual reinforcement in the context of management? How can blaming others for problems put both the accuser and the accused &#8220;in the box&#8221;?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Arbinger Institute&#8217;s leadership fable <em>Leadership and Self-Deception, <\/em>they discuss why blaming others only causes problems to grow. This made the main character Tom realize that he is guilty of mutual reinforcement both at work and home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Continue reading to see what <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-anatomy-of-peace-by-the-arbinger-institute\/\">the Arbinger Institute<\/a> has to say on mutual reinforcement and blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Mutual Reinforcement<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>While being in the box affects the way you see things, it also greatly affects others. <\/strong>When you blame others, they react and suddenly they\u2019re in the box too. You get into a destructive cycle with them. You blame them, they react to your blame, you blame them even more, they react, and so on. You reinforce each other\u2019s reasons to stay in the box and act badly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In a sense, you actually collude with each other, because to justify your behavior, you each <\/strong><strong><em>need<\/em><\/strong><strong> the other person to behave badly<\/strong>. You end up undermining the effectiveness of everything you do and making things worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Example<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s an example of how mutual reinforcement works:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>If you\u2019re in the box in your thinking toward your teenager and he gets home late, you\u2019ll see him as irresponsible and disrespectful. You might respond with criticism and discipline. If he\u2019s in the box toward you, he\u2019ll respond by viewing you as dictatorial. Rather than do what you want him to do\u2014get home earlier\u2014he\u2019s likely to get home later. Thus you provoke him to do more of what you don\u2019t want, and he, in turn, provokes more of what he doesn\u2019t want from you: discipline.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Story: Problems Escalate<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>During the discussion of blame and reinforcement, Tom thought of his 16-year-old son, Todd, and how he\u2019d never felt his son was good enough. Perhaps he needed his son to be a problem in order to feel justified in always seeing him as a problem. He wondered how that would feel from his son\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The need to see others as problems applies to many workplace interactions as well, Bud explained. <strong>You may need for people to perform poorly or create problems to justify your rationalizations and behavior toward them<\/strong>. So you provoke them to create problems and join you in a mutually reinforcing cycle of blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This soon affects how you begin to talk about them to others. The more people you can get to agree with you, the more justified you feel in your position. For example, if you were the parent whose son came home late, you might enlist your spouse to join you in blaming your son. At work, you might seek allies to reinforce and further feed your blame cycle with someone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this way, you further amplify the problem. If anyone tries to correct you, you resist because you\u2019re in the box of self-deception and can\u2019t see that you\u2019re the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In many companies, this destructive cycle gets in the way of achieving the results the company needs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Self-Betrayal in Organizations<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Bud explained that there are two ways distorted thinking or being in the box keeps companies from getting results or accomplishing what they need to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1) <strong>When you\u2019re in the box, you\u2019re focused on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-is-self-justification\/\">self-justification<\/a><\/strong>, and what brings you justification\u2014the failures of others\u2014goes against your company\u2019s or organization&#8217;s interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2) Also, <strong>when you\u2019re in the box and focused on yourself, you view results in a distorted way<\/strong>. People may describe you as results-focused, but you\u2019re mainly interested in using results to make yourself look good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You prioritize your results over other people\u2019s results and may trample them to get your results. By being in your box, you provoke others\u2014for instance, by withholding information or resources\u2014and they respond by doing the same things. You feel justified in blaming them and they feel justified in blaming you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This kind of contagion can easily spread through an organization, so that instead of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/focus-on-results\/\">focusing on results<\/a>, people and departments align against each other.<\/strong> Although they were hired to help the organization succeed, they end up taking satisfaction in others\u2019 failures and resent anyone\u2019s success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>\u2018People\u2019 Problems<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to undermining a company\u2019s results, distorted in-the-box thinking creates \u201cpeople\u201d problems that can seriously damage or sink the organization. They include:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Conflict&nbsp;<\/li><li>Stress<\/li><li>Lack of motivation&nbsp;<\/li><li>Poor teamwork<\/li><li>Distrust<\/li><li>Backstabbing<\/li><li>Lack of accountability&nbsp;<\/li><li>Poor communication<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/lack-of-commitment-in-a-team\/\">Lack of commitment<\/a><\/li><li>Lack of engagement<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In-the-box thinking (self-deception) starts with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/self-betrayal\/\">self-betrayal<\/a>, so addressing self-betrayal is the solution to \u201cpeople\u201d problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When individuals fail to do things they should do for coworkers, they betray themselves and blame others to justify their behavior.<\/strong> As the problems escalate, everyone participates in a common betrayal of not helping the organization achieve its results, as they were hired to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is mutual reinforcement in the context of management? How can blaming others for problems put both the accuser and the accused &#8220;in the box&#8221;? In the Arbinger Institute&#8217;s leadership fable Leadership and Self-Deception, they discuss why blaming others only causes problems to grow. This made the main character Tom realize that he is guilty of mutual reinforcement both at work and home. Continue reading to see what the Arbinger Institute has to say on mutual reinforcement and blame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":50201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,14,13],"tags":[492],"class_list":["post-49091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-management","category-parenting","tag-leadership-and-self-deception","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mutual Reinforcement Is Damaging Your Organization - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When you blame someone for a problem, they tend to react poorly and the problem escalates\u2014this is mutual reinforcement. Learn more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mutual Reinforcement Is Damaging Your Organization\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When you blame someone for a problem, they tend to react poorly and the problem escalates\u2014this is mutual reinforcement. Learn more.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-02T09:40:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-04T09:25:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/couple-fight.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1170\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"641\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hannah Aster\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hannah Aster\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hannah Aster\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f\"},\"headline\":\"Mutual Reinforcement Is Damaging Your Organization\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-02T09:40:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-04T09:25:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/\"},\"wordCount\":838,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/couple-fight.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Leadership and Self-Deception\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\",\"Management\",\"Parenting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/\",\"name\":\"Mutual Reinforcement Is Damaging Your Organization - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/couple-fight.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-02T09:40:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-04T09:25:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"When you blame someone for a problem, they tend to react poorly and the problem escalates\u2014this is mutual reinforcement. Learn more.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/couple-fight.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/couple-fight.jpg\",\"width\":1170,\"height\":641},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mutual Reinforcement Is Damaging Your Organization\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f\",\"name\":\"Hannah Aster\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Hannah Aster\"},\"description\":\"Hannah is a seasoned writer and editor who started her journey with Shortform nearly five years ago. She grew up reading mostly fiction books but transitioned to non-fiction writing when she started her travel website in 2018. When she's not writing or traveling, you can find Hannah working on home reno projects, crafting, or taking care of plants.\",\"knowsAbout\":[\"Graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English and minors in professional and creative writing\"],\"jobTitle\":\"SEO Team Lead\",\"worksFor\":\"Shortform\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/hannah\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mutual Reinforcement Is Damaging Your Organization - Shortform Books","description":"When you blame someone for a problem, they tend to react poorly and the problem escalates\u2014this is mutual reinforcement. Learn more.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mutual Reinforcement Is Damaging Your Organization","og_description":"When you blame someone for a problem, they tend to react poorly and the problem escalates\u2014this is mutual reinforcement. Learn more.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-10-02T09:40:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-10-04T09:25:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1170,"height":641,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/couple-fight.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Hannah Aster","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hannah Aster","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/"},"author":{"name":"Hannah Aster","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f"},"headline":"Mutual Reinforcement Is Damaging Your Organization","datePublished":"2021-10-02T09:40:49+00:00","dateModified":"2021-10-04T09:25:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/"},"wordCount":838,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/couple-fight.jpg","keywords":["Leadership and Self-Deception"],"articleSection":["Communication","Management","Parenting"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/","name":"Mutual Reinforcement Is Damaging Your Organization - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/couple-fight.jpg","datePublished":"2021-10-02T09:40:49+00:00","dateModified":"2021-10-04T09:25:05+00:00","description":"When you blame someone for a problem, they tend to react poorly and the problem escalates\u2014this is mutual reinforcement. Learn more.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/couple-fight.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/couple-fight.jpg","width":1170,"height":641},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mutual-reinforcement\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mutual Reinforcement Is Damaging Your Organization"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f","name":"Hannah Aster","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Hannah Aster"},"description":"Hannah is a seasoned writer and editor who started her journey with Shortform nearly five years ago. She grew up reading mostly fiction books but transitioned to non-fiction writing when she started her travel website in 2018. When she's not writing or traveling, you can find Hannah working on home reno projects, crafting, or taking care of plants.","knowsAbout":["Graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English and minors in professional and creative writing"],"jobTitle":"SEO Team Lead","worksFor":"Shortform","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/hannah\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/couple-fight.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49091"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50498,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49091\/revisions\/50498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}