Negan Character Analysis

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Hey Wisecrack, Jared here. Today we’re talking about everyone’s favorite psychopath. A man who is one twirly moustache away from being a hipster. The mayor of pee-pee pants city – Negan. And yes, there are spoilers ahead. Despite being the latest antagonist of the show, Negan gets an inordinate amount of praise from fans. Negan is hard not to love, in part because he’s just so damn charming. It might not be just his undeniable charisma that makes us gravitate towards him. He is one of the most effective leaders of the post-apocalypse. But the real question is: how effective, exactly?? Sure, we could leave it as “not very,” because of course someone is going to murder or overthrow him, ((why?)) because, well, this has all happened before. But I digress. Negan’s cruelty is neither novel, nor irrational. With a little help from philosophy and psychology, we can better understand how Negan is the perfect dictator. A leader, especially a post-apocalyptic one, can spend all day putting people in their place, rooting out insurrection as it appears, and awing people with the occasional …show more content…

Negan’s response to people may seem erratic- as if his bouts of violence are driven by his temper, but I’d like to argue that it’s all very deliberate. He’s developed a whole points system to incentivize work, and while consistent rewards are a great way to motivate people, psychologists argue there’s an even better way to get people to do shit: reward them randomly. Behavioral psychologists have found that when rewards are unexpected, and unscheduled, they are far more effective in promoting certain behaviors. Don’t just buy a worker a cup of coffee every time he hits a deadline, or every 5th time, make it a surprise. If you don’t believe me: go play a slot machine,. Random bonuses and treasures will keep you playing for hours. And this is what Negan does all the

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