Curse of the Familiar is familiar information feels true. It sits in the Biology dimension (BIO) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-BIO-0021, within the Cognition family. The core principle: familiar information feels true. 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
Familiar information feels true.
Plain-English Definition
Familiar information feels true.
Feynman Explanation
Repetition is a strategy.
Core Principle
Familiar information feels true.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Familiar information feels true.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Repetition is a strategy.
Examples
- Marketing, propaganda, internal messaging.
- Why some bad ideas survive on repetition.
Pending editorial review.
Original analysis from The Incentives Lab — how this element behaves inside real payoff structures.
Why this element matters to incentive design
When this element shows up in a diagnostic, the instinct is to train people out of it. Training rarely moves it. The mechanism underneath it operates in the Biology dimension — what does the body contribute?. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: repetition is a strategy. Every element in the Biology 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, why some bad ideas survive on repetition. It is amplified whenever why some bad ideas survive on repetition. Inside organizations that shows up as why some bad ideas survive on repetition. 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 periodic outside-eyes review. The leverage is not in explaining the behavior to people. It is in changing what the behavior earns.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Periodic outside-eyes review.
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.
- Periodic outside-eyes review.
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.
Brain region tracking conflict, error, and effort.
Boredom triggers creative wandering.
Cognitive performance varies predictably with circadian rhythm.
Most biases are efficient heuristics misapplied.
Working memory has limits.
Pausing System 1 to engage System 2.
Brain network active during rest and mind-wandering — and during creative insight.
Glucose, omega-3s, sleep, and hydration each influence decision quality.
Self-control draws from a limited daily pool. (Contested in lab; observed in life.)
Thinking happens through the body, not despite it.
Aerobic exercise measurably improves executive function.
Neurological state of peak performance and engagement.
Where Curse of the Familiar is cited in the corpus
Essays, field guides, and diagnostics from The Incentives Lab that apply this element.
- ReferenceNeuroscience entries in the glossary
Biological substrates of behavior.
- CourseIncentives 101
Where biology meets payoff perception.
- 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 Curse of the Familiar
- What is Curse of the Familiar?
- Curse of the Familiar is familiar information feels true. It sits in the Biology dimension (BIO) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-BIO-0021, within the Cognition family. The core principle: familiar information feels true. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
- What is an example of Curse of the Familiar?
- Why some bad ideas survive on repetition. The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-BIO-0021).
- How is Curse of the Familiar exploited?
- Why some bad ideas survive on repetition.
- How do you design around Curse of the Familiar?
- Periodic outside-eyes review.
- Which behavioral dimension does Curse of the Familiar belong to?
- Curse of the Familiar is classified in the Biology dimension (BIO) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Cognition", class "Neural Mechanism". Its permanent identifier is HBT-BIO-0021 and its evidence grade is B.