Scientific Definition
We construct a coherent life story; that story shapes future decisions.
Plain-English Definition
We construct a coherent life story; that story shapes future decisions.
Feynman Explanation
You don't have experiences. You have a story about your experiences.
Core Principle
We construct a coherent life story; that story shapes future decisions.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
We construct a coherent life story; that story shapes future decisions.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Culture is the company's collective narrative identity.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
You don't have experiences. You have a story about your experiences.
Examples
- Leaders re-author career setbacks as 'pivots that mattered.'
- Culture is the company's collective narrative identity.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Curate organizational story deliberately. Stories outlive policies.
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.
- Curate organizational story deliberately. Stories outlive policies.
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.
We prefer stories over raw facts, even when the story is misleading.
Order, discipline, hierarchy, principle, and rule-based value system. The 'right way' to do things.
The communitarian, egalitarian, consensus-seeking value system. Emerged strongly post-1960s.
The achievement-driven, rational, strategic, market-oriented value system. Most of Western corporate life.
Egocentric, power-driven, immediate-gratification value system. The will to dominate.
A value system — a structured way of making meaning that emerges at a particular life-condition stage.
The integrative, systemic, flexible value system — the first of second-tier.
Evaluating an argument's logic based on whether you agree with the conclusion.
Decisions optimize utility, not value.
Probability × payoff, summed across outcomes.
Decisions are shaped by who we believe we are — not only by monetary payoffs.
We act in ways that confirm 'people like me do things like this.'