Second-Tier Thinking is yellow and Turquoise vMemes — first systems that recognize the legitimacy of all earlier value systems. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0600, within the Culture family. The core principle: yellow and Turquoise vMemes — first systems that recognize the legitimacy of all earlier value systems. 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
Yellow and Turquoise vMemes — first systems that recognize the legitimacy of all earlier value systems.
Plain-English Definition
Yellow and Turquoise vMemes — first systems that recognize the legitimacy of all earlier value systems.
Feynman Explanation
First tier fights about which level is right. Second tier asks what each level is for.
Core Principle
Yellow and Turquoise vMemes — first systems that recognize the legitimacy of all earlier value systems.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Yellow and Turquoise vMemes — first systems that recognize the legitimacy of all earlier value systems.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Senior change leaders need second-tier capability or transformation programs become factional warfare.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
First tier fights about which level is right. Second tier asks what each level is for.
Examples
- Beck & Cowan's leap-of-meaning; takes <5% of the global population, per the original research.
- Senior change leaders need second-tier capability or transformation programs become factional warfare.
Pending editorial review.
Original analysis from The Incentives Lab — how this element behaves inside real payoff structures.
Why this element matters to incentive design
When this element shows up in a diagnostic, the instinct is to train people out of it. Training rarely moves it. The mechanism underneath it is straightforward: yellow and Turquoise vMemes — first systems that recognize the legitimacy of all earlier value systems. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: first tier fights about which level is right. Second tier asks what each level is for. 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, senior change leaders need second-tier capability or transformation programs become factional warfare. It is amplified whenever senior change leaders need second-tier capability or transformation programs become factional warfare. Inside organizations that shows up as senior change leaders need second-tier capability or transformation programs become factional warfare. 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 develop perspective-taking across all six first-tier vMemes before trying to lead change above them. Measure the behavior, not the sentiment. A survey will tell you how people feel about this; only observed action tells you whether it changed.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Develop perspective-taking across all six first-tier vMemes before trying to lead change above them.
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.
- Develop perspective-taking across all six first-tier vMemes before trying to lead change above them.
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.
Each value system (Beige through Green) believes itself to be the only valid one and dismisses the others.
Cultures vary in how strictly norms are enforced and deviance punished.
The relative weight a culture gives to individual goals vs. group cohesion.
The combination of historical, social, and existential pressures that activates the next vMeme.
How much hierarchical inequality a culture accepts as normal.
A developmental model of human value systems (vMemes) emerging in response to life conditions.
Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic — a tiny, atypical psychological sample.
Imagining what could have happened instead of what did.
Reasoning from foundational truths rather than from analogy or convention.
Players reason a fixed number of steps ahead about what others will do — and rarely beyond level 2 or 3.
Expecting change to happen at a constant rate.
Reason in distributions, not in points.
Where Second-Tier Thinking 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.
- CourseIncentives 101
The free ten-part primer on reading a payoff structure.
- ReferenceThe Periodic Table of Human Behavior
The full 1,267-element map this page belongs to.
Questions about Second-Tier Thinking
- What is Second-Tier Thinking?
- Second-Tier Thinking is yellow and Turquoise vMemes — first systems that recognize the legitimacy of all earlier value systems. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0600, within the Culture family. The core principle: yellow and Turquoise vMemes — first systems that recognize the legitimacy of all earlier value systems. 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 Second-Tier Thinking?
- Senior change leaders need second-tier capability or transformation programs become factional warfare. The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-COG-0600).
- How is Second-Tier Thinking exploited?
- Senior change leaders need second-tier capability or transformation programs become factional warfare.
- How do you design around Second-Tier Thinking?
- Develop perspective-taking across all six first-tier vMemes before trying to lead change above them.
- Which behavioral dimension does Second-Tier Thinking belong to?
- Second-Tier Thinking is classified in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Culture", class "Mental Model". Its permanent identifier is HBT-COG-0600 and its evidence grade is B.