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The Incentives Lab
HBT-CSN-0004 · Dimension CSN · Consciousness

Prime Directives of the Unconscious Mind

The NLP claim that the unconscious mind runs the body, stores memory, organizes patterns, and seeks to follow the directives it's given.

Learning·Mental Model·Grade B·draft· enriching…

Scientific Definition

The NLP claim that the unconscious mind runs the body, stores memory, organizes patterns, and seeks to follow the directives it's given.

Plain-English Definition

The NLP claim that the unconscious mind runs the body, stores memory, organizes patterns, and seeks to follow the directives it's given.

Feynman Explanation

Tell it what to do clearly enough, often enough, and it will. For better or worse.

Core Principle

The NLP claim that the unconscious mind runs the body, stores memory, organizes patterns, and seeks to follow the directives it's given.

Mechanisms

Psychological

Pending editorial review.

Behavioral Economic

The NLP claim that the unconscious mind runs the body, stores memory, organizes patterns, and seeks to follow the directives it's given.

Neurological

Pending editorial review.

Evolutionary

Pending editorial review.

Sociological

Pending editorial review.

Computational

Pending editorial review.

Systems

Habit installation, performance routines, persistent behavior change.

Inputs (Triggers)

Pending editorial review.

Outputs (Behaviors)

Pending editorial review.

Behavioral Signature

Tell it what to do clearly enough, often enough, and it will. For better or worse.

Examples

Everyday
  • Codified in NLP practitioner training; underpins anchoring and reframe work.
Modern (Organizational)
  • Habit installation, performance routines, persistent behavior change.
Historical

Pending editorial review.

Famous Experiments

Pending editorial review.

Design Principles

  • Audit what your environment and self-talk are quietly directing.

Measurement Approaches

Pending editorial review.

Evidence

Evidence Grade
B (A strongest → E speculative)
Replication
★★★☆☆
Intervention Confidence
3 / 5
Consensus
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Limitations
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Open Research Questions

Pending editorial review.

Primary References

Pending editorial review.

Signature Section

The Perverse Incentive Lens™

How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.

Exploitation
Habit installation, performance routines, persistent behavior change.
Amplifying Incentives
Habit installation, performance routines, persistent behavior change.
Org Failure Modes
Habit installation, performance routines, persistent behavior change.
Societal Failure Modes
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Ethical Considerations
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Redesign Strategies
Audit what your environment and self-talk are quietly directing.
Diagnostic Questions
  • Audit what your environment and self-talk are quietly directing.
Warning Signs

Pending editorial review.

Red Flags

Pending editorial review.

Intervention Playbook
Individual
Audit what your environment and self-talk are quietly directing.
Team
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Organization
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Policy
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
AI Implications
Detection
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Measurement
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Mitigation
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Responsible Use
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).

Interactive Mini Network

Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.

HBT-CSN-0004 · CSN
Prime Directives of the Unconscious Mind
PDMeMetacognitionMOMindfulness (Operati…TMThe Mindfulness STOP…CLConstructivism (Lear…DPDeliberate PracticeFLFelder-Silverman Lea…HMHoney & Mumford Lear…KEKolb's Experiential …LHLearned HelplessnessLCLearning Curve

Knowledge Graph Neighbors

Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.

Same family
HBT-CSN-0001Metacognition

Thinking about one's own thinking.

Same family
HBT-CSN-0003Mindfulness (Operational)

Paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally — Kabat-Zinn's working definition adopted across the Masters of Mindfulness faculty.

Same family
HBT-CSN-0006The Mindfulness STOP Practice

Stop, Take a breath, Observe, Proceed — a micro-intervention to insert a gap between stimulus and response.

Same domain
HBT-CSN-0002Metacognitive Calibration

Knowing what you know — and how confidently you know it.

Same domain
HBT-CSN-0005Self-Awareness

The continuous, accurate recognition of your own emotions, strengths, limits, and impact.

Shared keywords
HBT-COG-0092Beginner's Mind

Approach a situation as if you knew nothing.

Shared keywords
HBT-COG-0104Blue Mind (Nichols)

Wallace J. Nichols: proximity to water reliably shifts the nervous system toward a calmer, more creative state.

Shared keywords
HBT-COG-0011Adaptability Quotient (AQ)

Your capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn faster than the environment changes.

Shared keywords
HBT-COG-0037Andragogy (Knowles)

Malcolm Knowles's principles of adult learning: self-direction, experience as resource, readiness, problem-centered orientation, intrinsic motivation.

Shared keywords
HBT-COG-0069Attention as Trainable Resource (Jha)

Amishi Jha's research: attention is a finite, depletable, but trainable cognitive resource — short daily mindfulness measurably improves it.

Shared keywords
HBT-COG-0101Bizarreness Effect

Unusual or bizarre material is more memorable than common material.

Shared keywords
HBT-COG-0103Bloom's Taxonomy

Hierarchy of cognitive learning: Remember → Understand → Apply → Analyze → Evaluate → Create. Benjamin Bloom, 1956 (revised 2001).

Version History

v1.1.0 · 2026-06-28Initial auto-seed from corpus.