Scientific Definition
Drawing a conclusion from the absence of evidence rather than its presence.
Plain-English Definition
Drawing a conclusion from the absence of evidence rather than its presence.
Feynman Explanation
No news is not news.
Core Principle
Drawing a conclusion from the absence of evidence rather than its presence.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Drawing a conclusion from the absence of evidence rather than its presence.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
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Silence is rarely consent in commercial relationships.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
No news is not news.
Examples
- 'They haven't responded to our pricing change, so they must be fine with it.'
- Silence is rarely consent in commercial relationships.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Convert silence into a question — actively probe for response.
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.
- Convert silence into a question — actively probe for response.
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.
Using an authority's opinion as evidence, regardless of its merits.
Concluding that a claim is false because the argument for it is flawed.
Claiming something is true because it has not been proven false.
Saying it often enough until objections fade.
Deriving general rules from specific examples; the leap from instance to concept.
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.
Assuming that if one option is true, another must be false, when both can be true.
Presuming a purposeful actor behind events that may have no actor at all.
What cannot be settled by experiment is not worth debating.
A finite set of well-defined instructions for solving a problem or performing a computation.
Every model simplifies reality; some are still useful.