Scientific Definition
A conditioned response changes disproportionately when reinforcement changes.
Plain-English Definition
A conditioned response changes disproportionately when reinforcement changes.
Feynman Explanation
Reward more, work more. Reward less, sulk more. The change is the story.
Core Principle
A conditioned response changes disproportionately when reinforcement changes.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
A conditioned response changes disproportionately when reinforcement changes.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Incentive changes have outsized emotional and behavioral effects.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Reward more, work more. Reward less, sulk more. The change is the story.
Examples
- A sales team overperforms when commissions increase, then collapses when they are cut.
- Incentive changes have outsized emotional and behavioral effects.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Model the response to both increases and decreases in rewards.
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.
- Model the response to both increases and decreases in rewards.
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.
Unusual or bizarre material is more memorable than common material.
Believing previously learned misinformation even after it has been corrected.
Forcing yourself to explain a concept reveals exactly where your understanding is hollow.
As more facts are learned about a topic, retrieving any one fact slows.
IQ scores have risen substantially over generations.
Items that stand out are more likely to be remembered.
Your capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn faster than the environment changes.
Malcolm Knowles's principles of adult learning: self-direction, experience as resource, readiness, problem-centered orientation, intrinsic motivation.
Amishi Jha's research: attention is a finite, depletable, but trainable cognitive resource — short daily mindfulness measurably improves it.
Approach a situation as if you knew nothing.
Hierarchy of cognitive learning: Remember → Understand → Apply → Analyze → Evaluate → Create. Benjamin Bloom, 1956 (revised 2001).
Wallace J. Nichols: proximity to water reliably shifts the nervous system toward a calmer, more creative state.