Cryptomnesia is experiencing a remembered idea as if it were original. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0208, within the Reasoning family. The core principle: experiencing a remembered idea as if it were original. 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
Experiencing a remembered idea as if it were original.
Plain-English Definition
Experiencing a remembered idea as if it were original.
Feynman Explanation
Your great idea may be someone else's, forgotten.
Core Principle
Experiencing a remembered idea as if it were original.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Experiencing a remembered idea as if it were original.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Strategic novelty is often unacknowledged recall.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Your great idea may be someone else's, forgotten.
Examples
- 'Original' strategies that turn out to have been heard at a conference last year.
- Strategic novelty is often unacknowledged recall.
Pending editorial review.
Original analysis from The Incentives Lab — how this element behaves inside real payoff structures.
Why this element matters to incentive design
Most organizations meet this element as a personnel problem. It is not one. The mechanism underneath it is straightforward: experiencing a remembered idea as if it were original. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: your great idea may be someone else's, forgotten. 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, strategic novelty is often unacknowledged recall. It is amplified whenever strategic novelty is often unacknowledged recall. Inside organizations that shows up as strategic novelty is often unacknowledged recall. 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 cite sources even when you think you don't have one. Write down where ideas came from. Measure the behavior, not the sentiment. A survey will tell you how people feel about this; only observed action tells you whether it changed.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Cite sources even when you think you don't have one. Write down where ideas came from.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
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The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Cite sources even when you think you don't have one. Write down where ideas came from.
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 Cryptomnesia 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 Periodic Table of Human Behavior
The full 1,267-element map this page belongs to.
- CourseIncentives 101
The free ten-part primer on reading a payoff structure.
Questions about Cryptomnesia
- What is Cryptomnesia?
- Cryptomnesia is experiencing a remembered idea as if it were original. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0208, within the Reasoning family. The core principle: experiencing a remembered idea as if it were original. 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 Cryptomnesia?
- Strategic novelty is often unacknowledged recall. The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-COG-0208).
- How is Cryptomnesia exploited?
- Strategic novelty is often unacknowledged recall.
- How do you design around Cryptomnesia?
- Cite sources even when you think you don't have one. Write down where ideas came from.
- Which behavioral dimension does Cryptomnesia belong to?
- Cryptomnesia is classified in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Reasoning", class "Mental Model". Its permanent identifier is HBT-COG-0208 and its evidence grade is B.