Scientific Definition
Confidential settlements buy silence and prevent precedent that would deter future harm.
Plain-English Definition
Confidential settlements buy silence and prevent precedent that would deter future harm.
Feynman Explanation
The cheapest payout is the one nobody can cite.
Core Principle
Confidential settlements buy silence and prevent precedent that would deter future harm.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Confidential settlements buy silence and prevent precedent that would deter future harm.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Information asymmetry preserved by design.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
The cheapest payout is the one nobody can cite.
Examples
- Serial-offender employers settling NDAs across decades.
- Information asymmetry preserved by design.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Restrict NDAs for safety claims. Public settlement registries.
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.
- Restrict NDAs for safety claims. Public settlement registries.
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.
Contingency-fee structures shape which cases get filed.
Charging by time rewards inefficiency and prolongs disputes.
Police agencies that keep seized assets gain a direct fiscal interest in seizures.
Fixed compliance costs scale punitively for small firms and entrench large ones.
Compliance programs designed to satisfy regulators, not prevent harm.
Stacking fines on low-income defendants creates debt traps and recidivism.
Decisions made to be defensible, not to be right.
Mandatory federal sourcing from prison factories crowds out small business and entrenches inefficient production.
Fixed sentencing rules remove judicial discretion and inflate incarceration without reducing crime.
Trial penalties pressure even innocent defendants to plead guilty to avoid risk.
Per-inmate funding makes incarceration a budgetary asset for jurisdictions and contractors.
Caseloads far above professional norms guarantee weak defense for the poor.