Scientific Definition
Inattention or forgetfulness caused by low attention, hyperfocus, or distraction.
Plain-English Definition
Inattention or forgetfulness caused by low attention, hyperfocus, or distraction.
Feynman Explanation
The brain's autocomplete feature, but for the wrong task.
Core Principle
Inattention or forgetfulness caused by low attention, hyperfocus, or distraction.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Inattention or forgetfulness caused by low attention, hyperfocus, or distraction.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Errors happen when people are mentally checked out of the meeting they are physically in.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
The brain's autocomplete feature, but for the wrong task.
Examples
- Walking into a room and forgetting why you are there.
- Errors happen when people are mentally checked out of the meeting they are physically in.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Design checklists and interruptions that restore attention to the right thing.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Design checklists and interruptions that restore attention to the right thing.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
How will I feel about this in 10 minutes / 10 months / 10 years?
Forgetting to compare an offer with the next-best alternative.
Outcomes that could have happened but did not.
Overthinking a situation so that decision-making stalls.
The first number on the table silently sets the range for every number after it.
Tversky & Kahneman's classic: identical outcomes flip from 'risk averse' to 'risk seeking' when framed as lives saved vs. lives lost.
Our perception is shaped by what we selectively pay attention to.
Favoring suggestions from automated systems over conflicting human judgment.
A color appears different depending on adjacent colors.
Decisions are constrained by available information, cognitive limits, and time.
The ability to focus on one voice in a noisy environment.
Binding the future self with a present cost-of-defection to overcome impulse and inertia.