Scientific Definition
Giving someone artificial early progress increases the chance they finish.
Plain-English Definition
Giving someone artificial early progress increases the chance they finish.
Feynman Explanation
Two stamps free changes the math of motivation.
Core Principle
Giving someone artificial early progress increases the chance they finish.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Giving someone artificial early progress increases the chance they finish.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Onboarding and adoption design.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Two stamps free changes the math of motivation.
Examples
- Profile completion bars that start at 20% perform better than 0%.
- Onboarding and adoption design.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Show momentum from the first interaction. Never start at zero.
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.
- Show momentum from the first interaction. Never start at zero.
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.
Temporal landmarks (Monday, January, birthday) trigger new behavior attempts.
What people expect of themselves shapes what they achieve.
Children who delay gratification at age 4 show better outcomes across nearly every metric decades later.
Interrupted tasks generate a pull to resume them.
Unfinished tasks stick in working memory more than completed ones.
If-then plans dramatically increase follow-through on intentions.
Contrast vivid future success with concrete present obstacles to drive action.
Wish → Outcome → Obstacle → Plan. A goal-setting protocol from Oettingen.
Preferring options with known probabilities over options with unknown ones.
We accept vague, general statements as personally meaningful.
We come to like people we've done a favor for, more than people who've helped us.
A color appears different depending on adjacent colors.