Let’s imagine you have a goal in mind — for your life, career, etc. How do you move toward that goal? There are two basic approaches you can take:
- By creating a roadmap to the imagined destination.
- By making choices as you go.
While economic theory presupposes the first, learning theory suggests the second is more common. And it can be fraught: traps along the way can keep us from our destination.
In episode 21 of the Traction Heroes podcast, Harry read a fragment from the (out-of-print) book Social Traps that set the stage for what these traps might be:
Complex patterns of reinforcement, motivation, and the structure of social situations can draw people into unpreferred modes of behavior, subjecting them to consequences that are not comprehended until it is too late to avoid them.
Then, he outlined a taxonomy of five such traps. I expect you’ll wince in recognition:
- Time delay traps, where the effect of a choice doesn’t show up til much later.
- The ignorance trap, where we’re unaware of key aspects of the situation.
- Sliding reinforcers, where the things that were rewarded at one stage of development work against us at others.
- Externality traps, where we’re unaware of the collective impact of our actions.
- Collective traps, where everyone either doing or not doing something contributes to negative experiences.
Knowing these different types of traps exist — and how to deal with them — helps you avoid them. Harry goes into more detail in the podcast, including examples. Do yourself a favor and check out the show.