Scientific Definition
A social preference for equitable outcomes, even at personal cost.
Plain-English Definition
A social preference for equitable outcomes, even at personal cost.
Feynman Explanation
People will burn $5 to keep someone else from getting $15 unfairly.
Core Principle
A social preference for equitable outcomes, even at personal cost.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
A social preference for equitable outcomes, even at personal cost.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Compensation perceived as unfair destroys retention faster than compensation that is low.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
People will burn $5 to keep someone else from getting $15 unfairly.
Examples
- Ultimatum game rejections of low-but-positive offers.
- Compensation perceived as unfair destroys retention faster than compensation that is low.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Audit perceived fairness — not just market comparability — in any reward system.
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.
- Audit perceived fairness — not just market comparability — in any reward system.
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.
A group decides on a course of action that nobody actually wants, because everyone assumes others prefer it.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
We attribute our own actions to situations but others' actions to their character.
We favor people who are similar to us or who like us.
Sacrificing for others without expecting a personal reward.
Masking the sponsors of a message to make it appear grassroots.
Disagreement grows more extreme as the parties think more about the issue.
Systematic errors in explaining the causes of behavior — yours or others'.
We accept vague, general statements as personally meaningful.
Adding the word 'because' (with any reason) increases compliance dramatically.
Behaviors spread through groups via observation and imitation.
We come to like people we've done a favor for, more than people who've helped us.