Friction is any small cost — clicks, forms, thought — that shifts behavior. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0335, within the Choice Architecture family. The core principle: any small cost — clicks, forms, thought — that shifts behavior. 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
Any small cost — clicks, forms, thought — that shifts behavior.
Plain-English Definition
Any small cost — clicks, forms, thought — that shifts behavior.
Feynman Explanation
Friction is the cheapest behavior-change lever and the most underused.
Core Principle
Any small cost — clicks, forms, thought — that shifts behavior.
Mechanisms
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Inputs (Triggers)
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Outputs (Behaviors)
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Behavioral Signature
Friction is the cheapest behavior-change lever and the most underused.
Examples
- A single extra checkout step can cut conversion by 30%.
- Internal friction (approvals, tools) silently determines what work happens.
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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
Executives usually notice this element only after it has cost something. By then it looks like a one-off. It is not. The mechanism underneath it operates in the Cognition dimension — how do we think?. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: friction is the cheapest behavior-change lever and the most underused. 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, adding friction to risky actions changes outcomes more than warnings. It is amplified whenever internal friction (approvals, tools) silently determines what work happens. Inside organizations that shows up as internal friction (approvals, tools) silently determines what work happens. 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 subtract friction on what you want; add friction to what you want less of. Treat it as infrastructure. Once you can see it in your own system, most of the argument about culture resolves itself.
Famous Experiments
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Design Principles
- Subtract friction on what you want; add friction to what you want less of.
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.
- Subtract friction on what you want; add friction to what you want less of.
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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.
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.
We seek tasks where we feel effective and improving.
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 Friction 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.
- 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 Friction
- What is Friction?
- Friction is any small cost — clicks, forms, thought — that shifts behavior. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0335, within the Choice Architecture family. The core principle: any small cost — clicks, forms, thought — that shifts behavior. 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 Friction?
- Internal friction (approvals, tools) silently determines what work happens. The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-COG-0335).
- How is Friction exploited?
- Adding friction to risky actions changes outcomes more than warnings.
- How do you design around Friction?
- Subtract friction on what you want; add friction to what you want less of.
- Which behavioral dimension does Friction belong to?
- Friction is classified in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Choice Architecture", class "Concept". Its permanent identifier is HBT-COG-0335 and its evidence grade is C.