Curiosity is an information gap creates a pull toward closing it. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0214, within the Motivation family. The core principle: an information gap creates a pull toward closing 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
An information gap creates a pull toward closing it.
Plain-English Definition
An information gap creates a pull toward closing it.
Feynman Explanation
Open loops are the cheapest engagement engine ever built.
Core Principle
An information gap creates a pull toward closing it.
Mechanisms
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Inputs (Triggers)
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Outputs (Behaviors)
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Behavioral Signature
Open loops are the cheapest engagement engine ever built.
Examples
- Headlines that tease the answer get the click.
- Product tours that reveal one mystery at a time outperform full feature dumps.
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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 operates in the Cognition dimension — how do we think?. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: open loops are the cheapest engagement engine ever built. 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, 'Continue the story' prompts exploit curiosity gaps to extend sessions. It is amplified whenever product tours that reveal one mystery at a time outperform full feature dumps. Inside organizations that shows up as product tours that reveal one mystery at a time outperform full feature dumps. 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 use curiosity to teach, not to trap. 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
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Design Principles
- Use curiosity to teach, not to trap.
Measurement Approaches
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Evidence
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The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Use curiosity to teach, not to trap.
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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.
We seek tasks where we feel effective and improving.
Clear ownership of outcomes, not just tasks.
Asymmetric information attracts the worst counterparties.
We defer to perceived expertise, rank, or uniform.
Vastness that exceeds existing schemas dissolves the self briefly.
Negative feedback returns a system toward a target.
Membership in a group is a baseline human need.
Individually rational choices that produce a collectively bad outcome.
Competing loyalties that compromise judgment.
Value is judged against whatever sits next to it.
Outcomes depend on aligning choices, not on who 'wins.'
Signals whose value depends on being expensive to fake.
Where Curiosity 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.
- 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 Curiosity
- What is Curiosity?
- Curiosity is an information gap creates a pull toward closing it. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0214, within the Motivation family. The core principle: an information gap creates a pull toward closing 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 Curiosity?
- Product tours that reveal one mystery at a time outperform full feature dumps. The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-COG-0214).
- How is Curiosity exploited?
- 'Continue the story' prompts exploit curiosity gaps to extend sessions.
- How do you design around Curiosity?
- Use curiosity to teach, not to trap.
- Which behavioral dimension does Curiosity belong to?
- Curiosity is classified in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Motivation", class "Concept". Its permanent identifier is HBT-COG-0214 and its evidence grade is C.