I think, you are referring to a situation, where you can "bully" the table, because losing a big pot will hurt the other players much more, that it will hurt you. This will depend not only on the chip distribution, but also the stage of the tournament. Near the bubble and on the final table ICM is way more important, than it is early on and also post bubble but before the final table.
So if for instance the tournament just began, and you dubbled up through another player, because you had AA, and he had KK, and you got your hold, then this will not tend to matter very much. The other players still have at least 100BB with typical MTT structures, and the fact, you now have 200BB, has very little impact on the game play.
In a similar fashion it also wont matter much to have 50BB just after the bubble burst, if you are still far from the final table, and the other players have 10-30BB. They will all be looking to accumulate chips to make a run for the final table, so they are generally not going to make a nitty fold, just because you have them covered.
