Why do we do this?

Why do we do this? We are afraid to say no, to let people down and ultimately, to avoid confrontation. The stress of saying no often makes us say yes automatically.

— from Communication & Conflict (Communication/Conflict) · Win Your Inner Battles: Defeat the Enemy Within and Live With Purpose by Darius Foroux

In the book

And often you are not even fighting about anything real: a great many arguments are just fighting with the air, clashes of stereotype and assumption rather than any genuine difference of substance. We make it worse with our instinct to avoid: we so dread confrontation that we cannot say no, and the very stress of refusing makes us blurt out yes. But mere niceness — keeping everything smooth and pleasant — is not the virtue it pretends to be; it papers over the real problems, where genuine kindness will risk rocking the boat to address the trouble festering underneath. — Communication & Conflict (Communication/Conflict)

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