Influence Agent Credibility is persuasion power is a function of perceived expertise × perceived trustworthiness. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0400, within the Social family. The core principle: persuasion power is a function of perceived expertise × perceived trustworthiness. 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
Persuasion power is a function of perceived expertise × perceived trustworthiness.
Plain-English Definition
Persuasion power is a function of perceived expertise × perceived trustworthiness.
Feynman Explanation
Expertise without trust is a lecture. Trust without expertise is friendship. Influence needs both.
Core Principle
Persuasion power is a function of perceived expertise × perceived trustworthiness.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Persuasion power is a function of perceived expertise × perceived trustworthiness.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Executive communication, sales, and change leadership.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Expertise without trust is a lecture. Trust without expertise is friendship. Influence needs both.
Examples
- Hovland & Weiss's source-credibility research, central to Brown's framework.
- Executive communication, sales, and change leadership.
Pending editorial review.
Original analysis from The Incentives Lab — how this element behaves inside real payoff structures.
Why this element matters to incentive design
This element is common enough to feel like human nature and specific enough to be engineered around. The mechanism underneath it is straightforward: persuasion power is a function of perceived expertise × perceived trustworthiness. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: expertise without trust is a lecture. Trust without expertise is friendship. Influence needs both. 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, executive communication, sales, and change leadership. It is amplified whenever executive communication, sales, and change leadership. Inside organizations that shows up as executive communication, sales, and change leadership. 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 invest in both axes deliberately. They compound differently and decay differently. The leverage is not in explaining the behavior to people. It is in changing what the behavior earns.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Invest in both axes deliberately. They compound differently and decay differently.
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.
- Invest in both axes deliberately. They compound differently and decay differently.
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.
Hard tactics use pressure and authority; soft tactics use rapport, reasoning, and inspiration.
A consistent minority can shift the majority's views over time.
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.
Adding the word 'because' (with any reason) increases compliance dramatically.
Where Influence Agent Credibility 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.
- EssayAI Agents Inherit Your Incentives
How this element propagates into automated systems.
- CourseIncentives 101
The free ten-part primer on reading a payoff structure.
- ReferenceThe incentive glossary
Definitions for every mental model, bias, and fallacy in the corpus.
- ReferenceThe Periodic Table of Human Behavior
The full 1,267-element map this page belongs to.
Questions about Influence Agent Credibility
- What is Influence Agent Credibility?
- Influence Agent Credibility is persuasion power is a function of perceived expertise × perceived trustworthiness. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0400, within the Social family. The core principle: persuasion power is a function of perceived expertise × perceived trustworthiness. 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 Influence Agent Credibility?
- Executive communication, sales, and change leadership. The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-COG-0400).
- How is Influence Agent Credibility exploited?
- Executive communication, sales, and change leadership.
- How do you design around Influence Agent Credibility?
- Invest in both axes deliberately. They compound differently and decay differently.
- Which behavioral dimension does Influence Agent Credibility belong to?
- Influence Agent Credibility is classified in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Social", class "Mental Model". Its permanent identifier is HBT-COG-0400 and its evidence grade is B.