Campbell's Law is an 📝adage developed by Donald T. Campbell, a psychologist and social scientist who often wrote about research methodology, which states:

"The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor."

The principle of Campbell's law is sometimes used to highlight negative consequences of high-stakes testing in classrooms. This may take the form of teaching to the test or outright cheating.

Related to 📝Goodhart's Law and the 📝Cobra Effect, Campbell warns us about the unintended consequences of confusing the metrics we choose with our overarching end goals. The more we rely solely on what can be measured, we lose touch with the importance of 📝quality.

Contexts

• 🏷️#cognitive-bias (See: 📝Cognitive Bias)