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The Incentives Lab
HBT-INC-0248 · Dimension INC · Incentives

School Lunch Calorie Floor

Funding rules force districts to add sugary sides to hit caloric minimums.

Social Perverse Pattern·Perverse Incentive·Grade C·draft· enriching…

Scientific Definition

Funding rules force districts to add sugary sides to hit caloric minimums.

Plain-English Definition

Funding rules force districts to add sugary sides to hit caloric minimums.

Feynman Explanation

We pay schools to feed the floor, not the kid.

Core Principle

Funding rules force districts to add sugary sides to hit caloric minimums.

Mechanisms

Psychological

Pending editorial review.

Behavioral Economic

Funding rules force districts to add sugary sides to hit caloric minimums.

Neurological

Pending editorial review.

Evolutionary

Pending editorial review.

Sociological

Reimbursement formulas dictate nutrition.

Computational

Pending editorial review.

Systems

Pending editorial review.

Inputs (Triggers)

Pending editorial review.

Outputs (Behaviors)

Pending editorial review.

Behavioral Signature

We pay schools to feed the floor, not the kid.

Examples

Everyday
  • Cookie-mandated balancing across district menus.
Modern (Organizational)
  • Reimbursement formulas dictate nutrition.
Historical

Pending editorial review.

Famous Experiments

Pending editorial review.

Design Principles

  • Nutrient-based reimbursement metrics.

Measurement Approaches

Pending editorial review.

Evidence

Evidence Grade
C (A strongest → E speculative)
Replication
★★★☆☆
Intervention Confidence
4 / 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
Reimbursement formulas dictate nutrition.
Amplifying Incentives
Reimbursement formulas dictate nutrition.
Org Failure Modes
Reimbursement formulas dictate nutrition.
Societal Failure Modes
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Ethical Considerations
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Redesign Strategies
Nutrient-based reimbursement metrics.
Diagnostic Questions
  • Nutrient-based reimbursement metrics.
Warning Signs

Pending editorial review.

Red Flags

Pending editorial review.

Intervention Playbook
Individual
Nutrient-based reimbursement metrics.
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-INC-0248 · INC
School Lunch Calorie Floor
SLBABusyness as StatusCDCancel DynamicsCACelebrity Attention …CCComparison CultureDADating App Gamificat…HSHUD Section 8 Concen…HCHustle Culture Glori…IPIdentity-Coded Polit…LALike and Follower Co…NNNews Negativity Bias

Knowledge Graph Neighbors

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

Version History

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