Scientific Definition
Symptoms or beliefs spread through a group with no underlying physical cause.
Plain-English Definition
Symptoms or beliefs spread through a group with no underlying physical cause.
Feynman Explanation
Sometimes the disease is the belief.
Core Principle
Symptoms or beliefs spread through a group with no underlying physical cause.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Symptoms or beliefs spread through a group with no underlying physical cause.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Investor and employee panic can be contagious without basis.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Sometimes the disease is the belief.
Examples
- Mass tech-stack panic about a 'doomed' framework that's actually fine.
- Investor and employee panic can be contagious without basis.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Anchor to evidence quickly when narratives accelerate.
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.
- Anchor to evidence quickly when narratives accelerate.
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.
Behaviors spread through groups via observation and imitation.
Avoiding contact with people or things perceived as 'contaminated'.
Ideas, behaviors, and attitudes spread through social networks.
A group decides on a course of action that nobody actually wants, because everyone assumes others prefer it.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
We attribute our own actions to situations but others' actions to their character.
We favor people who are similar to us or who like us.
Sacrificing for others without expecting a personal reward.
Masking the sponsors of a message to make it appear grassroots.
Disagreement grows more extreme as the parties think more about the issue.
Systematic errors in explaining the causes of behavior — yours or others'.
We accept vague, general statements as personally meaningful.