Scientific Definition
Removing a quote from its context to distort its meaning.
Plain-English Definition
Removing a quote from its context to distort its meaning.
Feynman Explanation
A half-truth is a whole lie with good PR.
Core Principle
Removing a quote from its context to distort its meaning.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Removing a quote from its context to distort its meaning.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Marketing and internal reporting both suffer from context stripping.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
A half-truth is a whole lie with good PR.
Examples
- A customer testimonial is edited to sound glowing when the full quote was mixed.
- Marketing and internal reporting both suffer from context stripping.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Show the full source for any claim that depends on a quote.
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.
- Show the full source for any claim that depends on a quote.
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.
What an environment offers an actor for action — handles to grip, surfaces to sit on, paths to follow.
Environmental factors influence perception and judgment.
Preference between two options depends on what other options sit beside them — attraction, compromise, similarity effects.
The same message in a different setting produces a different result.
A change to the choice architecture that predictably shifts behavior — without removing options.
Teaching the same concept to different audiences over time is naturally spaced repetition with feedback baked in.
A visual map of where in your day, mind, and environment your best thinking actually happens.
Deriving general rules from specific examples; the leap from instance to concept.
The brain evolved to reason adaptively, not always truthfully, to reduce the cost of errors.
We solve problems by adding, even when subtracting would be better.
Assuming that if one option is true, another must be false, when both can be true.
Presuming a purposeful actor behind events that may have no actor at all.