Scientific Definition
When someone does us a favor, we feel pressure to return it.
Plain-English Definition
When someone does us a favor, we feel pressure to return it.
Feynman Explanation
Free coffee at the vendor booth is the cheapest enterprise sales tactic ever invented.
Core Principle
When someone does us a favor, we feel pressure to return it.
Mechanisms
When someone does us a favor, we feel pressure to return it.
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Inputs (Triggers)
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Outputs (Behaviors)
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Behavioral Signature
Free coffee at the vendor booth is the cheapest enterprise sales tactic ever invented.
Examples
- A free analysis from a consultancy produces a six-figure contract.
- Procurement decisions quietly tilted by favors no one logged.
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Famous Experiments
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Design Principles
- Audit gifts and favors. Make them irrelevant to the decision criteria.
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.
- Audit gifts and favors. Make them irrelevant to the decision criteria.
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Interactive Mini Network
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Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
We overweight whoever has the bigger title in the room.
Adopting beliefs because the room already did.
Spending disproportionate energy on trivial decisions.
Diffused responsibility means nothing happens.
Once we say it publicly, we'll defend it past the data.
Forgetting what it's like not to know what you know.
Assuming everyone secretly agrees with us.
Their failure: character. Our failure: situation.
Low expectations produce low performance.
One strong trait colors judgment of unrelated traits.
We extend more trust, benefit of the doubt, and rope to 'our people.'
We're more persuaded by people we like.