Scientific Definition
Crediting a source or cause that isn't actually responsible.
Plain-English Definition
Crediting a source or cause that isn't actually responsible.
Feynman Explanation
We assign reasons to outcomes we can't really explain.
Core Principle
Crediting a source or cause that isn't actually responsible.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Crediting a source or cause that isn't actually responsible.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Most attribution in business analytics is partially false.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
We assign reasons to outcomes we can't really explain.
Examples
- Crediting a marketing campaign for a revenue bump that came from seasonality.
- Most attribution in business analytics is partially false.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Test attribution causally, not by temporal proximity.
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.
- Test attribution causally, not by temporal proximity.
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.
Reasoning that two things are alike based on shallow similarity.
Correlation does not imply causation.
Assuming that because B followed A, A caused B.
Presenting two options as the only possibilities when more exist.
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.