Reputation is stored social capital from prior behavior. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0581, within the Social family. The core principle: stored social capital from prior behavior. 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
Stored social capital from prior behavior.
Plain-English Definition
Stored social capital from prior behavior.
Feynman Explanation
Reputation arrives on foot and leaves on horseback.
Core Principle
Stored social capital from prior behavior.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Reputation arrives on foot and leaves on horseback.
Examples
- A repeat seller on a marketplace can charge a premium for the same listing.
- Reputation compounds slower than capital and erodes faster.
Pending editorial review.
Original analysis from The Incentives Lab — how this element behaves inside real payoff structures.
Why this element matters to incentive design
This element is common enough to feel like human nature and specific enough to be engineered around. The mechanism underneath it operates in the Cognition dimension — how do we think?. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: reputation arrives on foot and leaves on horseback. 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, model reputation now shapes vendor selection more than benchmarks do. It is amplified whenever reputation compounds slower than capital and erodes faster. Inside organizations that shows up as reputation compounds slower than capital and erodes faster. 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 invest in reputation as infrastructure, not as PR. Design against it the way you would design against a known failure mode — assume it will appear, and price the exploit before someone finds it.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Invest in reputation as infrastructure, not as PR.
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.
- Invest in reputation as infrastructure, not as PR.
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.
We defer to perceived expertise, rank, or uniform.
Membership in a group is a baseline human need.
We say yes more often to people we like.
Cooperation between unrelated agents when future reciprocity is likely.
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 Reputation 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.
- ReferenceThe Periodic Table of Human Behavior
The full 1,267-element map this page belongs to.
Questions about Reputation
- What is Reputation?
- Reputation is stored social capital from prior behavior. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0581, within the Social family. The core principle: stored social capital from prior behavior. 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 Reputation?
- Reputation compounds slower than capital and erodes faster. The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-COG-0581).
- How is Reputation exploited?
- Model reputation now shapes vendor selection more than benchmarks do.
- How do you design around Reputation?
- Invest in reputation as infrastructure, not as PR.
- Which behavioral dimension does Reputation belong to?
- Reputation is classified in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Social", class "Concept". Its permanent identifier is HBT-COG-0581 and its evidence grade is C.