Disliking/Hating Tendency
We dismiss the ideas and merits of people we dislike.
"The messenger doesn't change the message — but we let it."
What is Disliking/Hating Tendency? We dismiss the ideas and merits of people we dislike. Information from disliked people is systematically devalued.
A correct objection ignored because the source is disliked.
Information from disliked people is systematically devalued.
Evaluate ideas on a separate axis from their source.
Use the model. Pick the move.
We dismiss the ideas and merits of people we dislike. You've just seen this: A correct objection ignored because the source is disliked. Which lever does the model recommend?
Pick a lever. There are no neutral ones — every incentive funds a behavior somewhere.
Pick a reaction to Disliking/Hating Tendency
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The full taxonomy entry
Every concept in the Atlas uses the same structure — so Disliking/Hating Tendency can be compared, recombined, and cited like an element on a periodic table.
- Business
- Leadership
- Government
- Healthcare
- Education
- Sales
- Marketing
- AI
- Negotiation
- Media
- Public Policy
- Relationships
- Where in our org would Disliking/Hating Tendency most often show up unnoticed?
- Which metric, ritual, or contract clause quietly rewards Disliking/Hating Tendency?
- If we removed every payoff for Disliking/Hating Tendency, what behavior would replace it?
- Who benefits when Disliking/Hating Tendency persists — and who pays the cost?
- People defend the status quo using the language of disliking/hating tendency.
- Decisions cluster around the easiest narrative rather than the strongest evidence.
- New data changes the slide deck but not the decision.
- Anyone naming the pattern is treated as the problem.
Every Atlas entry is a node in a knowledge graph. See the related rail below to follow the connections.
See Disliking/Hating Tendency through 2 lenses
Each layer of the Incentives OS reframes this concept with its own thinkers, vocabulary, and diagnostic question.
Do you actually know Disliking/Hating Tendency?
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Which best describes Disliking/Hating Tendency?
Worked example, counter-example & concept map
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When you encounter Disliking/Hating Tendency, your default mode network folds the experience into your ongoing story-of-self — which is why the same fact lands differently depending on who you think you are.
Self-referential thought, mind-wandering, narrative-of-self, mental time travel. Most of your waking thought is this network running scenarios about you, your status, your past, and your future.
See Default Mode in the Brain Atlas →Picked for you, from the Atlas
Ranked by shared learning paths, overlapping chips, and what you've saved.
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.
Send the card, not just the link
A pre-rendered social card with the title, eyebrow, and URL. Copy the link, post it anywhere, or download the SVG for slides.
More definitions to follow
Every term in the Atlas connects to a dozen others. Pick any of these and see where it takes you.
Self-direction is one of the deepest motivational levers.
How options are presented changes which ones get chosen.
Countering hostile narratives with truthful, well-timed alternatives.
Politicians optimize for the next election, not the next generation.
Reasoning from foundational truths rather than from analogy or convention.
We disproportionately prefer rewards now over rewards later.
The longer an idea has survived, the longer it likely will.
Where the model runs shapes privacy, latency, cost, and capability.
Distance in time, space, social relation, or hypotheticality changes judgment.
Confidential settlements buy silence and prevent precedent that would deter future harm.
Cherry-picking data to fit a pattern after the fact.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.