The Day of the
“Horse,” Someone
Said Deer

The full narration of the video.

On the day of 'calling a deer a horse', someone actually said: deer. In 207 BC, in the great hall of the Qin court, Chancellor Zhao Gao led in a deer. He presented it to the Second Emperor and said: this is a horse.

The emperor laughed: surely you're mistaken, Chancellor? That's plainly a deer. Even the emperor said deer. But when he turned to ask his ministers, the hall split three ways. Some looked down and said nothing. Some followed Zhao Gao and said horse. And some told the truth: deer.

So not everyone said horse. The ones who said deer were later charged with other crimes by Zhao Gao, and dealt with one by one. From then on, the whole court feared him.

So what was Zhao Gao after? He knew perfectly well a deer isn't a horse. The history book spells it out: he wanted power, feared the ministers wouldn't obey, so he ran a test first. It's a bit like poking a boiling potato with a chopstick.

If it slides right in, it's soft; if it won't go in, it's still hard inside. That deer was Zhao Gao's chopstick. He wasn't asking what animal it was, but whether you'd obey him.

Those who said horse were soft; those who said deer were hard, and he noted every one. The ministers all knew it was a deer. They were answering a different question. Say deer, and you might lose your post or your life; say horse, and nothing happens. The answer was decided in advance.

But what if nobody punished you for being wrong? Psychologists ran an experiment: look at one line, then three more, and say which one matches. The answer is obvious at a glance. Answering alone, fewer than one in a hundred get it wrong.

But the other people in the room were planted, and they all named the wrong line. Then about one answer in three went along with the error. Three people in four went along at least once. No threats, no punishment. A roomful of people saying it was enough.

This is called conformity: when everyone says it, you start doubting yourself, or you'd rather not be the only odd one out. Someone misreads a number in a meeting and the whole room nods along — that's it. In Zhao Gao's hall, there was both: once the first ones said horse, the rest found it harder to speak up; and saying deer got you punished.

So the ministers weren't blind to the deer. They saw all too clearly: what saying deer would cost. If you'd stood in that hall that day, would you have looked down, said horse, or said deer?