Scientific Definition
Coaches paid on titles take more risk; coaches paid on attendance take less.
Plain-English Definition
Coaches paid on titles take more risk; coaches paid on attendance take less.
Feynman Explanation
Tell me how you measure success and I'll tell you what you'll do.
Core Principle
Coaches paid on titles take more risk; coaches paid on attendance take less.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Coaches paid on titles take more risk; coaches paid on attendance take less.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Performance behavior shaped by what's actually measured.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Tell me how you measure success and I'll tell you what you'll do.
Examples
- Different coaching strategies under different comp structures.
- Performance behavior shaped by what's actually measured.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Multi-dimensional performance evaluation.
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.
- Multi-dimensional performance evaluation.
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.
Once any player dopes, everyone is forced to consider it.
Bad teams 'tank' for better draft positions.
'Equal value' exchanges incentivize subjective appraisal gaming to trade low-utility land for high-value public assets.
Professors rewarded by student evaluations have an incentive to inflate.
Notifications calibrated for return visits, not value.
When OKRs are tied to comp, ambition disappears.
Titles substitute for raises; senior titles inflate, value doesn't.
Notification systems hijack attention by manufacturing urgency for trivial events.
Universities optimize for ranking metrics rather than education quality.
Discount framing nudges people to buy things they wouldn't otherwise want.
Productivity targets compress visits, raising misdiagnosis and burnout.
A federal mandate intended to lower drug costs for the poor became a profit engine for hospitals and contract pharmacies.