Scientific Definition
Judging an argument by its origin rather than its merit.
Plain-English Definition
Judging an argument by its origin rather than its merit.
Feynman Explanation
'It came from McKinsey, so it must be true.' / 'It came from sales, so it must be self-interested.'
Core Principle
Judging an argument by its origin rather than its merit.
Mechanisms
Judging an argument by its origin rather than its merit.
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Inputs (Triggers)
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Outputs (Behaviors)
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Behavioral Signature
'It came from McKinsey, so it must be true.' / 'It came from sales, so it must be self-interested.'
Examples
- Dismissing data because of where it came from rather than what it says.
- Insight loss along departmental and seniority lines.
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Famous Experiments
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Design Principles
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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.
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Interactive Mini Network
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Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Attacking the person rather than the argument.
It's true because authority says so.
Common sense says so, therefore it's true.
Believing something is true because of the consequences of its truth.
Claiming something is true because it hasn't been proven false (or vice versa).
If it's 'natural,' it's good.
It's better because it's newer.
It's right because it's how we've always done it.
I can't believe it; therefore it isn't true.
Saying it enough times until it sounds true.
It's true because many believe it.
Asking the other side to disprove an unsupported claim.