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The Incentives Lab
HBT-CUL-0006 · Dimension CUL · Culture

Red vMeme

Egocentric, power-driven, immediate-gratification value system. The will to dominate.

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

Scientific Definition

Egocentric, power-driven, immediate-gratification value system. The will to dominate.

Plain-English Definition

Egocentric, power-driven, immediate-gratification value system. The will to dominate.

Feynman Explanation

Red doesn't negotiate. Red wins or loses, and then resets the table.

Core Principle

Egocentric, power-driven, immediate-gratification value system. The will to dominate.

Mechanisms

Psychological

Pending editorial review.

Behavioral Economic

Egocentric, power-driven, immediate-gratification value system. The will to dominate.

Neurological

Pending editorial review.

Evolutionary

Pending editorial review.

Sociological

Pending editorial review.

Computational

Pending editorial review.

Systems

Necessary in turnaround and crisis; toxic in steady-state without containment.

Inputs (Triggers)

Pending editorial review.

Outputs (Behaviors)

Pending editorial review.

Behavioral Signature

Red doesn't negotiate. Red wins or loses, and then resets the table.

Examples

Everyday
  • Beck & Cowan; appears in early-stage entrepreneurship, autocratic leadership, gang dynamics.
Modern (Organizational)
  • Necessary in turnaround and crisis; toxic in steady-state without containment.
Historical

Pending editorial review.

Famous Experiments

Pending editorial review.

Design Principles

  • Channel Red into legitimate competitive arenas; bound it with Blue structures.

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
Necessary in turnaround and crisis; toxic in steady-state without containment.
Amplifying Incentives
Necessary in turnaround and crisis; toxic in steady-state without containment.
Org Failure Modes
Necessary in turnaround and crisis; toxic in steady-state without containment.
Societal Failure Modes
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Ethical Considerations
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Redesign Strategies
Channel Red into legitimate competitive arenas; bound it with Blue structures.
Diagnostic Questions
  • Channel Red into legitimate competitive arenas; bound it with Blue structures.
Warning Signs

Pending editorial review.

Red Flags

Pending editorial review.

Intervention Playbook
Individual
Channel Red into legitimate competitive arenas; bound it with Blue structures.
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-CUL-0006 · CUL
Red vMeme
RVBVBlue vMemeGVGreen vMemeOVOrange vMemeVMvMemeYVYellow vMemeNFNarrative FallacyNINarrative IdentityCTCultural Tightness-L…FTFirst-Tier ThinkingInIndividualism-Collec…

Knowledge Graph Neighbors

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

Same family
HBT-CUL-0001Blue vMeme

Order, discipline, hierarchy, principle, and rule-based value system. The 'right way' to do things.

Same family
HBT-CUL-0002Green vMeme

The communitarian, egalitarian, consensus-seeking value system. Emerged strongly post-1960s.

Same family
HBT-CUL-0005Orange vMeme

The achievement-driven, rational, strategic, market-oriented value system. Most of Western corporate life.

Same family
HBT-CUL-0007vMeme

A value system — a structured way of making meaning that emerges at a particular life-condition stage.

Same family
HBT-CUL-0008Yellow vMeme

The integrative, systemic, flexible value system — the first of second-tier.

Same domain
HBT-CUL-0003Narrative Fallacy

We prefer stories over raw facts, even when the story is misleading.

Same domain
HBT-CUL-0004Narrative Identity

We construct a coherent life story; that story shapes future decisions.

Shared keywords
HBT-COG-0211Cultural Tightness-Looseness

Cultures vary in how strictly norms are enforced and deviance punished.

Shared keywords
HBT-COG-0319First-Tier Thinking

Each value system (Beige through Green) believes itself to be the only valid one and dismisses the others.

Shared keywords
HBT-COG-0396Individualism-Collectivism

The relative weight a culture gives to individual goals vs. group cohesion.

Shared keywords
HBT-COG-0442Life Conditions (Graves)

The combination of historical, social, and existential pressures that activates the next vMeme.

Shared keywords
HBT-COG-0538Power Distance

How much hierarchical inequality a culture accepts as normal.

Version History

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