Satisficing is choosing a good-enough option rather than optimizing for the best. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0593, within the Decision family. The core principle: choosing a good-enough option rather than optimizing for the best. 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
Choosing a good-enough option rather than optimizing for the best.
Plain-English Definition
Choosing a good-enough option rather than optimizing for the best.
Feynman Explanation
Perfect is the enemy of good enough.
Core Principle
Choosing a good-enough option rather than optimizing for the best.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Choosing a good-enough option rather than optimizing for the best.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Satisficing saves time and reduces decision fatigue.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Perfect is the enemy of good enough.
Examples
- A CEO hires a candidate who meets the bar rather than searching endlessly.
- Satisficing saves time and reduces decision fatigue.
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 is one of the elements leaders describe as a values gap. It is a payoff gap. The mechanism underneath it is straightforward: choosing a good-enough option rather than optimizing for the best. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: perfect is the enemy of good enough. 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, satisficing saves time and reduces decision fatigue. It is amplified whenever satisficing saves time and reduces decision fatigue. Inside organizations that shows up as satisficing saves time and reduces decision fatigue. 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 set an 'good enough' threshold and stop searching once it is met. The test of any redesign here is simple: after the change, can you name what the organization is now doing less of? If not, the payoff structure did not actually move.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Set an 'good enough' threshold and stop searching once it is met.
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.
- Set an 'good enough' threshold and stop searching once it is met.
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.
How will I feel about this in 10 minutes / 10 months / 10 years?
Inattention or forgetfulness caused by low attention, hyperfocus, or distraction.
Forgetting to compare an offer with the next-best alternative.
Outcomes that could have happened but did not.
Overthinking a situation so that decision-making stalls.
The first number on the table silently sets the range for every number after it.
Tversky & Kahneman's classic: identical outcomes flip from 'risk averse' to 'risk seeking' when framed as lives saved vs. lives lost.
Our perception is shaped by what we selectively pay attention to.
Favoring suggestions from automated systems over conflicting human judgment.
A color appears different depending on adjacent colors.
Decisions are constrained by available information, cognitive limits, and time.
The ability to focus on one voice in a noisy environment.
Where Satisficing 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.
- 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 Satisficing
- What is Satisficing?
- Satisficing is choosing a good-enough option rather than optimizing for the best. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0593, within the Decision family. The core principle: choosing a good-enough option rather than optimizing for the best. 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 Satisficing?
- Satisficing saves time and reduces decision fatigue. The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-COG-0593).
- How is Satisficing exploited?
- Satisficing saves time and reduces decision fatigue.
- How do you design around Satisficing?
- Set an 'good enough' threshold and stop searching once it is met.
- Which behavioral dimension does Satisficing belong to?
- Satisficing is classified in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Decision", class "Mental Model". Its permanent identifier is HBT-COG-0593 and its evidence grade is B.