2 docs tagged with "behaviour"

Incentive Theory describes how rewards, punishments, and structural conditions shape human behaviour by changing the costs and benefits of different actions. Central to economics, psychology, and organisational design, it explains why people respond to the incentives they actually face rather than those we intend, why misaligned incentives are the root cause of most persistent organisational dysfunction, and how to design systems that produce desired behaviour reliably.

Social Proof is the psychological tendency to look to others' behaviour as evidence of the correct course of action, especially in uncertain situations. One of Robert Cialdini's six core principles of influence, it explains why testimonials, crowd behaviour, bestseller labels, star ratings, and "others are doing this" messaging reliably shift attitudes and behaviour — because humans evolved to use social information as a shortcut for uncertain decisions.