Competition is drives innovation and differentiation. It sits in the Motivation dimension (MOT) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-MOT-0005, within the Level 5 family. The core principle: drives innovation and differentiation. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
Scientific Definition
Drives innovation and differentiation
Plain-English Definition
Drives innovation and differentiation
Feynman Explanation
Drives innovation and differentiation
Core Principle
Drives innovation and differentiation
Mechanisms
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Inputs (Triggers)
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Outputs (Behaviors)
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Behavioral Signature
Drives innovation and differentiation
Examples
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Original analysis from The Incentives Lab — how this element behaves inside real payoff structures.
Why this element matters to incentive design
Most organizations meet this element as a personnel problem. It is not one. The mechanism underneath it operates in the Motivation dimension — why do we act?. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: drives innovation and differentiation. Every element in the Motivation dimension changes the perceived payoff of an action before the action happens, which is exactly where incentive design has leverage.
How it gets exploited
Left undesigned, this element is exploited the ordinary way: someone discovers that triggering it is cheaper than earning the outcome it stands in for. The pattern is the same one Goodhart's Law describes: the measurable proxy attracts the effort, and the purpose behind it quietly loses funding.
How the Lab designs around it
The redesign move is to make the desired behavior observable, remove whatever currently pays for its opposite, and attach the reward to the behavior rather than to the noisy outcome downstream of it. The test of any redesign here is simple: after the change, can you name what the organization is now doing less of? If not, the payoff structure did not actually move.
Famous Experiments
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Design Principles
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Measurement Approaches
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Evidence
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The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
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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.
Seeks connection and safety
Unites millions around ideas
Purpose beyond the self
We notice things selectively
Systems that shape our future
Complex adaptive systems
Humanity learns together
Shared feelings become norms
Patterns between two people
We feel with others
The context that shapes behavior
Hope, awe, dread
Where Competition is cited in the corpus
Essays, field guides, and diagnostics from The Incentives Lab that apply this element.
- EssayThe Comp Plan Is the Strategy
What the organization actually pays for.
- Field guideOrganizational incentives
The four layers of workplace payoff.
- ReferenceThe incentive glossary
Definitions for every mental model, bias, and fallacy in the corpus.
- ReferenceThe Periodic Table of Human Behavior
The full 1,267-element map this page belongs to.
Questions about Competition
- What is Competition?
- Competition is drives innovation and differentiation. It sits in the Motivation dimension (MOT) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-MOT-0005, within the Level 5 family. The core principle: drives innovation and differentiation. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
- How is Competition exploited?
- It is exploited when triggering the behavior becomes cheaper than producing the outcome the behavior is supposed to signal — the standard perverse-incentive path.
- How do you design around Competition?
- Name the behavior you want in observable terms, remove what currently pays for the opposite, attach the reward to the behavior rather than a lagging proxy, and publish how you will detect gaming.
- Which behavioral dimension does Competition belong to?
- Competition is classified in the Motivation dimension (MOT) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Level 5", class "Behavioral Force". Its permanent identifier is HBT-MOT-0005 and its evidence grade is B.