Scientific Definition
People copy the choices of others, assuming they have private information.
Plain-English Definition
People copy the choices of others, assuming they have private information.
Feynman Explanation
The crowd is not wise. It is just following the first person who looked wise.
Core Principle
People copy the choices of others, assuming they have private information.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
People copy the choices of others, assuming they have private information.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
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Adoption and rejection can cascade without real information.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
The crowd is not wise. It is just following the first person who looked wise.
Examples
- A restaurant line forms because people assume the food is good.
- Adoption and rejection can cascade without real information.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Seek independent signals before joining the crowd.
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.
- Seek independent signals before joining the crowd.
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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.
Systems that gain from disorder.
Approach motivation — pursuit of rewards and goals.
Avoidance motivation — sensitivity to punishment, uncertainty, and threat.
Map reinforcing (R) and balancing (B) feedback loops between variables to see system behavior.
A system with many interacting parts that learn and adapt.
Many interacting parts producing emergent behavior nobody designed.
Single-loop fixes the action. Double-loop questions the goal or model that produced it.
System 1 is fast, automatic, intuitive; System 2 is slow, effortful, deliberate.
Interdependent network of actors evolving together.
The whole has properties that the individual parts do not.
Systems maintain stability by self-regulating around a setpoint.
Subjects often converge to neoclassical predictions only after many rounds of feedback — not on the first try.