Scientific Definition
Researchers favor conclusions aligned with their school, team, or sponsor.
Plain-English Definition
Researchers favor conclusions aligned with their school, team, or sponsor.
Feynman Explanation
The data is neutral. The analyst is not.
Core Principle
Researchers favor conclusions aligned with their school, team, or sponsor.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Researchers favor conclusions aligned with their school, team, or sponsor.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Internal analytics often tell the story the team wants to hear.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
The data is neutral. The analyst is not.
Examples
- A pharma study funded by the drug's manufacturer finds more positive results.
- Internal analytics often tell the story the team wants to hear.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Assign independent analysts and pre-register hypotheses.
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.
- Assign independent analysts and pre-register hypotheses.
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.
The brain evolved to reason adaptively, not always truthfully, to reduce the cost of errors.
We solve problems by adding, even when subtracting would be better.
Relying on examples that come to mind easily, not on actual frequency.
Systematic deviations from rationality in judgment.
Treating multiple data points as independent when they came from one source.
Testing hypotheses only by looking for confirming evidence.
Applying higher scrutiny to evidence we disagree with than to evidence we agree with.
Over-weighting one's own perspective when reconstructing events.
Mind latches onto the first plausible explanation and resists alternatives.
Research outcomes tend to favor the interests of the funders.
Deriving general rules from specific examples; the leap from instance to concept.
Assuming that if one option is true, another must be false, when both can be true.