Thread by @YunaHuhWong

Today we’ll talk about how to achieve negative learning in wargames. Because who says more #wargaming is always good? [1/8]

Negative learning is “the acquisition of erroneous conceptual and procedural knowledge and understanding from unwarranted information, which leads to faulty mental models and reasoning." A lot is needed to "unlearn such misconceptions or biases.” [2/8]
plato.uni-mainz.de/definition/

One way to achieve negative learning in your wargame is to teach participants how to fight the last war, even though you know future conflicts will be different. I.e. bring in adjudicators who explain to junior officers how they did it in Iraq. [3/8]

Another way is to consistently use the organizationally blessed scenario and the consensus adversary approach. Shield your participants from the discomfort of alternative scenarios, alternative adversary CONOPS, and surprises in general. [4/8]

Always adjudicate a service’s magical and $$$ widget as supremely effective against anything they encounter. End the game quickly before the younger staffers playing the adversary figure out a cheap and effective way to counter said magical future widget. [5/8]

Encourage further negative learning by always leaving out logistics. Blow off any apoplectic loggies and tell them they’ll just have to figure it out during the actual war. Reassure the planners that the logistics will be there and to continue with their concept. [6/8]

Remember to consistently exclude allied and partner perspectives from your wargames. Part of the fun of a real war is realizing for the first time that your plan assumed Japan and South Korea would share information. [7/8]

All right everyone. What are other ways can you think of to create negative learning in wargames? [8/8]