Scientific Definition
The combination of historical, social, and existential pressures that activates the next vMeme.
Plain-English Definition
The combination of historical, social, and existential pressures that activates the next vMeme.
Feynman Explanation
You don't argue someone into a new worldview. You change the conditions that called their old one into being.
Core Principle
The combination of historical, social, and existential pressures that activates the next vMeme.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
The combination of historical, social, and existential pressures that activates the next vMeme.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Why org change without changing the underlying conditions reverts within 18 months.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
You don't argue someone into a new worldview. You change the conditions that called their old one into being.
Examples
- Clare Graves's central insight; Beck & Cowan's operationalization.
- Why org change without changing the underlying conditions reverts within 18 months.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Diagnose the life conditions first. Design interventions that shift them, not just the surface behavior.
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.
- Diagnose the life conditions first. Design interventions that shift them, not just the surface behavior.
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.
Cultures vary in how strictly norms are enforced and deviance punished.
Each value system (Beige through Green) believes itself to be the only valid one and dismisses the others.
The relative weight a culture gives to individual goals vs. group cohesion.
How much hierarchical inequality a culture accepts as normal.
Yellow and Turquoise vMemes — first systems that recognize the legitimacy of all earlier value systems.
A developmental model of human value systems (vMemes) emerging in response to life conditions.
Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic — a tiny, atypical psychological sample.
Basics first (health/finances), then depth (mastery/impact), then altruism (widening circle).
Intuition is trustworthy only when the domain is regular, practice is plentiful, and feedback is fast.
Criteria for a workable outcome: stated positively, in your control, sensory-specific, ecological, and worth the cost.
How will I feel about this in 10 minutes / 10 months / 10 years?
A group decides on a course of action that nobody actually wants, because everyone assumes others prefer it.