# chilling effect (induced-under)

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.

- Computed level: L15 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: published  ·  Domain: agency

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [self-model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-self-model.reflexive), [reach](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-reach.action), [power](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-power.over), [model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-model.representation), [wall](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-wall.range-end), [set](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-set.fix), [narrow](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-narrow.spatial), [near](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-near.spatial), [groups](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-groups.collection), [across](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-across.spatial), [read](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-read.information)

**Through:** 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
- 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. *(law)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-chilling-effect.induced-under*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-chilling-effect.induced-under.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*