Scientific Definition
Pick the option that wins on the single most important cue; ignore the rest.
Plain-English Definition
Pick the option that wins on the single most important cue; ignore the rest.
Feynman Explanation
Decision-making for people who don't have time to die in spreadsheets.
Core Principle
Pick the option that wins on the single most important cue; ignore the rest.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Pick the option that wins on the single most important cue; ignore the rest.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Useful for fast, repeated, low-stakes decisions; dangerous for big ones.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Decision-making for people who don't have time to die in spreadsheets.
Examples
- Choose the vendor with the best reference call; stop there.
- Useful for fast, repeated, low-stakes decisions; dangerous for big ones.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Identify when a one-cue rule is appropriate — and when it's just laziness.
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.
- Identify when a one-cue rule is appropriate — and when it's just laziness.
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.