Liking is we say yes more often to people we like. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0443, within the Social family. The core principle: we say yes more often to people we like. 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
We say yes more often to people we like.
Plain-English Definition
We say yes more often to people we like.
Feynman Explanation
Rapport is the original API key.
Core Principle
We say yes more often to people we like.
Mechanisms
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Inputs (Triggers)
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Outputs (Behaviors)
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Behavioral Signature
Rapport is the original API key.
Examples
- Sales reps who mirror customers close at higher rates.
- Hiring tilts toward 'culture fit' that is mostly 'liked me in 30 minutes.'
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Original analysis from The Incentives Lab — how this element behaves inside real payoff structures.
Why this element matters to incentive design
Executives usually notice this element only after it has cost something. By then it looks like a one-off. It is not. The mechanism underneath it operates in the Cognition dimension — how do we think?. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: rapport is the original API key. Every element in the Cognition 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, friendly chatbots get more compliance than terse ones. It is amplified whenever hiring tilts toward 'culture fit' that is mostly 'liked me in 30 minutes.'. Inside organizations that shows up as hiring tilts toward 'culture fit' that is mostly 'liked me in 30 minutes.'. 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 score the proposal blind to the proposer. Measure the behavior, not the sentiment. A survey will tell you how people feel about this; only observed action tells you whether it changed.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Score the proposal blind to the proposer.
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.
- Score the proposal blind to the proposer.
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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.
We defer to perceived expertise, rank, or uniform.
Membership in a group is a baseline human need.
Cooperation between unrelated agents when future reciprocity is likely.
Stored social capital from prior behavior.
Things feel more valuable when supply or time is limited.
Unwritten rules that govern behavior in a group.
Position in a hierarchy is a primary driver of behavior.
Strong in-group loyalty paired with out-group skepticism.
Shared identity ('we') drives compliance harder than shared interest.
Clear ownership of outcomes, not just tasks.
Asymmetric information attracts the worst counterparties.
Vastness that exceeds existing schemas dissolves the self briefly.
Where Liking is cited in the corpus
Essays, field guides, and diagnostics from The Incentives Lab that apply this element.
- EssayGoodhart's Law in the Real World
How measurable proxies capture judgment.
- EssayThe Perverse Incentives Hiding in Your KPIs
Cognitive shortcuts turned into scorecards.
- ReferenceThe incentive glossary
Definitions for every mental model, bias, and fallacy in the corpus.
- CourseIncentives 101
The free ten-part primer on reading a payoff structure.
- ReferenceThe Periodic Table of Human Behavior
The full 1,267-element map this page belongs to.
Questions about Liking
- What is Liking?
- Liking is we say yes more often to people we like. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0443, within the Social family. The core principle: we say yes more often to people we like. 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 Liking?
- Hiring tilts toward 'culture fit' that is mostly 'liked me in 30 minutes.' The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-COG-0443).
- How is Liking exploited?
- Friendly chatbots get more compliance than terse ones.
- How do you design around Liking?
- Score the proposal blind to the proposer.
- Which behavioral dimension does Liking belong to?
- Liking is classified in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Social", class "Concept". Its permanent identifier is HBT-COG-0443 and its evidence grade is C.