{
  "id": "chilling-effect.induced-under",
  "term": "chilling effect",
  "sense": "induced-under",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "published",
  "level": 15,
  "domain": "agency",
  "style": "window",
  "definition": "Self models across a group reading their own reach as narrower than it is, because they model a power over them with walls nearer than it sets.",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "self-model.reflexive",
      "reach.action",
      "power.over",
      "model.representation",
      "wall.range-end",
      "set.fix",
      "narrow.spatial",
      "near.spatial",
      "groups.collection",
      "across.spatial",
      "read.information"
    ],
    "interaction": "No one is stopped at a wall; each stops short of a wall it models as nearer and wider than the power would enforce. Because the uncertainty costs the one acting and not the power, the margin each leaves grows, and the group's window narrows with no wall moved.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "a narrowing done by the ones narrowed",
      "walls larger in the model than in the law",
      "power that sets walls it never sets"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "US courts use 'chilling effect' for laws so vague or broad that people avoid lawful speech for fear of prosecution, a ground for striking such laws down under the First Amendment overbreadth doctrine.",
      "domain": "law"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "learned-helplessness.under",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "both are SELF-READ under; helplessness is learned from one's own failed acts, a chilling effect from modeling another's power"
    },
    {
      "id": "deterrence.modeled-wall",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "deterrence is a wall read as it is and aimed at a rival; a chilling effect is a wall read as nearer than it is, felt by those it was not aimed at"
    },
    {
      "id": "self-efficacy.calibrated",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "SELF-READ under vs accurate"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "chilled speech",
    "chilling effect",
    "chilling effects"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "claude-opus-5-5:hand-curated",
    "date": "2026-09-28",
    "confidence": 0.85,
    "sources": [
      "schema/power-agency-phase.md"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-chilling-effect.induced-under"
}