Bohm Dialogue is a conversational discipline where participants suspend assumptions and inquire collectively into meaning. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0105, within the Social family. The core principle: a conversational discipline where participants suspend assumptions and inquire collectively into meaning. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
Scientific Definition
A conversational discipline where participants suspend assumptions and inquire collectively into meaning.
Plain-English Definition
A conversational discipline where participants suspend assumptions and inquire collectively into meaning.
Feynman Explanation
Debate wins. Discussion decides. Dialogue discovers.
Core Principle
A conversational discipline where participants suspend assumptions and inquire collectively into meaning.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
A conversational discipline where participants suspend assumptions and inquire collectively into meaning.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
What strategic offsites claim to be and rarely are.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Debate wins. Discussion decides. Dialogue discovers.
Examples
- David Bohm's 'On Dialogue'; foundation of the MIT dialogue project.
- What strategic offsites claim to be and rarely are.
Pending editorial review.
Original analysis from The Incentives Lab — how this element behaves inside real payoff structures.
Why this element matters to incentive design
When this element shows up in a diagnostic, the instinct is to train people out of it. Training rarely moves it. The mechanism underneath it is straightforward: a conversational discipline where participants suspend assumptions and inquire collectively into meaning. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: debate wins. Discussion decides. Dialogue discovers. Every element in the Cognition dimension changes the perceived payoff of an action before the action happens, which is exactly where incentive design has leverage.
How it gets exploited
Left undesigned, what strategic offsites claim to be and rarely are. It is amplified whenever what strategic offsites claim to be and rarely are. Inside organizations that shows up as what strategic offsites claim to be and rarely are. The pattern is the same one Goodhart's Law describes: the measurable proxy attracts the effort, and the purpose behind it quietly loses funding.
How the Lab designs around it
The redesign move is to name when you're switching from decision-mode to dialogue-mode. The two cannot share airtime. The test of any redesign here is simple: after the change, can you name what the organization is now doing less of? If not, the payoff structure did not actually move.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Name when you're switching from decision-mode to dialogue-mode. The two cannot share airtime.
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.
- Name when you're switching from decision-mode to dialogue-mode. The two cannot share airtime.
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.
A group decides on a course of action that nobody actually wants, because everyone assumes others prefer it.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
We attribute our own actions to situations but others' actions to their character.
We favor people who are similar to us or who like us.
Sacrificing for others without expecting a personal reward.
Masking the sponsors of a message to make it appear grassroots.
Disagreement grows more extreme as the parties think more about the issue.
Systematic errors in explaining the causes of behavior — yours or others'.
We accept vague, general statements as personally meaningful.
Adding the word 'because' (with any reason) increases compliance dramatically.
Behaviors spread through groups via observation and imitation.
We come to like people we've done a favor for, more than people who've helped us.
Where Bohm Dialogue is cited in the corpus
Essays, field guides, and diagnostics from The Incentives Lab that apply this element.
- EssayGoodhart's Law in the Real World
How measurable proxies capture judgment.
- EssayThe Perverse Incentives Hiding in Your KPIs
Cognitive shortcuts turned into scorecards.
- EssayAI Agents Inherit Your Incentives
How this element propagates into automated systems.
- CourseIncentives 101
The free ten-part primer on reading a payoff structure.
- ReferenceThe incentive glossary
Definitions for every mental model, bias, and fallacy in the corpus.
- ReferenceThe Periodic Table of Human Behavior
The full 1,267-element map this page belongs to.
Questions about Bohm Dialogue
- What is Bohm Dialogue?
- Bohm Dialogue is a conversational discipline where participants suspend assumptions and inquire collectively into meaning. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0105, within the Social family. The core principle: a conversational discipline where participants suspend assumptions and inquire collectively into meaning. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
- What is an example of Bohm Dialogue?
- What strategic offsites claim to be and rarely are. The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-COG-0105).
- How is Bohm Dialogue exploited?
- What strategic offsites claim to be and rarely are.
- How do you design around Bohm Dialogue?
- Name when you're switching from decision-mode to dialogue-mode. The two cannot share airtime.
- Which behavioral dimension does Bohm Dialogue belong to?
- Bohm Dialogue is classified in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Social", class "Mental Model". Its permanent identifier is HBT-COG-0105 and its evidence grade is B.