Scientific Definition
Start cooperative; copy your counterpart's last move thereafter.
Plain-English Definition
Start cooperative; copy your counterpart's last move thereafter.
Feynman Explanation
The winningest strategy in repeated games. Also good parenting.
Core Principle
Start cooperative; copy your counterpart's last move thereafter.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Start cooperative; copy your counterpart's last move thereafter.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Strategy for repeated negotiation.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
The winningest strategy in repeated games. Also good parenting.
Examples
- Reciprocal partnership norms.
- Strategy for repeated negotiation.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Use forgiving variants; small punishments, fast resets.
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.
- Use forgiving variants; small punishments, fast resets.
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.
Combine extreme safety with extreme risk; avoid the middle.
Game theory adjusted for how humans actually play — including fairness, reciprocity, and limited reasoning.
Allocating finite resources across many fronts when the opponent does the same — no dominant strategy exists.
Coordinated action that produces outcomes unavailable to individual actors.
Designing organizations to ride doubling curves — AI, data, compute, biotech — rather than linear improvement.
Decisions depend on what other strategic actors will do.
Individual rationality produces collective irrationality.
Causal chain from inputs to outputs to outcomes to impact.
Where, how, what — in that order.
One party's gain is exactly another party's loss.
Reverse-engineering the internal sequence — visual, auditory, kinesthetic — an expert uses to produce a result.
Unconscious psychological strategies that protect self-image.