Short showWhen Rewards Backfire
Discover how good intentions pave the road to disaster when performance metrics hijack human behavior. From healthcare to corporate boardrooms, this series explores the hidden economics and psychology behind systems that encourage cheating and corruption. Learn why measuring the wrong things leads to unintended consequences in business and society.
Latest drops:
The War for Cuteness
How a mascot competition became corrupted.
How a Health Target Made Patients Sicker
Hospitals hit their goals by gaming the system.
When Paying for Blood Backfires
How a good incentive can make a selfless act worse.
Paying for Failure
Why bribing students for better grades backfires.
How to Save a Species by Destroying It
A law with good intentions created a perverse incentive.
The Tax That Blocked the Sun
When financial optimization turns deadly
The Observation Loophole
A bureaucratic trick shifting costs to the elderly
Hired Specifically to Be Fired
The dark side of forced employee turnover metrics
The Penny War: Paid to Crash
How volume-based pay turned streets into racetracks
Paying Factories to Pollute
How the UN accidentally subsidized greenhouse gases