The Pulickal Fallacy: Indifference, Authority, and the Inversion of Social Judgment

Contemporary motivational culture frequently promotes the maxim "I do not care what anyone thinks" as a pathway to confidence, productivity, and success. This essay identifies and defines a fundamental conceptual error in this maxim, here termed the Pulickal Fallacy. The fallacy consists in conflating emotional autonomy with social immunity. It treats personal indifference to judgment as socially neutral, ignoring the recursive nature of social cognition where consequences arise not from private intention, but from collective interpretation. By analyzing this inversion through the lenses of recursive belief, signaling theory, and asymmetric risk, the paper exposes the limitations of motivational individualism and proposes a coherent framework for understanding responsibility, power, and social consequence.