Brandolini's Law is the energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0111, within the Reasoning family. The core principle: the energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it. 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
The energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.
Plain-English Definition
The energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.
Feynman Explanation
Lies run sprints. Truth runs marathons.
Core Principle
The energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
The energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Misinformation is an asymmetric threat to every organization.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Lies run sprints. Truth runs marathons.
Examples
- A false claim spreads in minutes; the correction takes days and never reaches everyone.
- Misinformation is an asymmetric threat to every organization.
Pending editorial review.
Original analysis from The Incentives Lab — how this element behaves inside real payoff structures.
Why this element matters to incentive design
This is one of the elements leaders describe as a values gap. It is a payoff gap. The mechanism underneath it is straightforward: the energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: lies run sprints. Truth runs marathons. 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, misinformation is an asymmetric threat to every organization. It is amplified whenever misinformation is an asymmetric threat to every organization. Inside organizations that shows up as misinformation is an asymmetric threat to every organization. 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 invest in rapid, credible response teams and pre-bunked narratives. Watch for it at the boundaries: handoffs, promotions, incident reviews, and budget cycles are where this element gets its power.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Invest in rapid, credible response teams and pre-bunked narratives.
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.
- Invest in rapid, credible response teams and pre-bunked narratives.
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.
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.
Researchers favor conclusions aligned with their school, team, or sponsor.
Using personal stories or isolated examples instead of evidence.
Claiming something is true or better because most people believe it.
Assuming something is true because it is probable or possible.
Where Brandolini's Law 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.
- ReferenceThe incentive glossary
Definitions for every mental model, bias, and fallacy in the corpus.
- CourseIncentives 101
The free ten-part primer on reading a payoff structure.
- ReferenceThe Periodic Table of Human Behavior
The full 1,267-element map this page belongs to.
Questions about Brandolini's Law
- What is Brandolini's Law?
- Brandolini's Law is the energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0111, within the Reasoning family. The core principle: the energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it. 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 Brandolini's Law?
- Misinformation is an asymmetric threat to every organization. The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-COG-0111).
- How is Brandolini's Law exploited?
- Misinformation is an asymmetric threat to every organization.
- How do you design around Brandolini's Law?
- Invest in rapid, credible response teams and pre-bunked narratives.
- Which behavioral dimension does Brandolini's Law belong to?
- Brandolini's Law is classified in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Reasoning", class "Mental Model". Its permanent identifier is HBT-COG-0111 and its evidence grade is B.