Friction
Any small cost — clicks, forms, thought — that shifts behavior.
"Friction is the cheapest behavior-change lever and the most underused."
What is Friction? Any small cost — clicks, forms, thought — that shifts behavior. Internal friction (approvals, tools) silently determines what work happens.
A single extra checkout step can cut conversion by 30%.
Internal friction (approvals, tools) silently determines what work happens.
Adding friction to risky actions changes outcomes more than warnings.
Subtract friction on what you want; add friction to what you want less of.
Pick a reaction to Friction
One tap. We'll point you at the most useful next surface based on how this hits.
The full taxonomy entry
Every concept in the Atlas uses the same structure — so Friction 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 Friction most often show up unnoticed?
- Which metric, ritual, or contract clause quietly rewards Friction?
- If we removed every payoff for Friction, what behavior would replace it?
- Who benefits when Friction persists — and who pays the cost?
- People defend the status quo using the language of friction.
- 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 Friction through this lens
Each layer of the Incentives OS reframes this concept with its own thinkers, vocabulary, and diagnostic question.
Do you actually know Friction?
Three quick questions. Result is saved into your review streak — come back when the term is due to lock it in.
Which best describes Friction?
Worked example, counter-example & concept map
On-demand AI analysis grounded in the Lab's research. Cached on your device after first run.
When you encounter Friction, your prefrontal cortex has to do extra work to override the automatic response — and that override budget is finite.
Executive control, planning, impulse override, working memory, System 2. First thing to go offline under stress, fatigue, or low blood sugar. Why your 4pm decisions are worse than your 9am ones.
See Prefrontal in the Brain Atlas →Picked for you, from the Atlas
Ranked by shared learning paths, overlapping chips, and what you've saved.
Clear ownership of outcomes, not just tasks.
Asymmetric information attracts the worst counterparties.
We defer to perceived expertise, rank, or uniform.
Vastness that exceeds existing schemas dissolves the self briefly.
Negative feedback returns a system toward a target.
Membership in a group is a baseline human need.
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.
A present-bias kink (β) on top of exponential discounting (δ): immediate rewards get a bonus, all future rewards trade normally.
A trend appears in different groups but disappears or reverses when groups are combined.
Under threat, the prefrontal cortex goes offline.
Feelings act as shortcuts for facts.
We judge frequency by how easily examples come to mind.
We remember our past choices as better than they were.
Giving polite rather than honest answers to avoid offense.
Constraining the option set to bias the decision.
Break a problem down to irreducible truths and rebuild from there.
We disproportionately prefer rewards now over rewards later.
Expecting change to happen at a constant rate.
Observe, Orient, Decide, Act — faster than your competitor.