duction: Incentives are the reason we do everything we do. Controlling our actions like marrow-sucking aliens of the Matrix, they are behind our every move, yet bring to the world a sense of order and social progress. From the businessman who offshores hundreds of jobs to Asia to save on his bottomline to the shy young accountant who takes the last three pieces of chocolate cake at her office christmas party, because she thinks no one will find out. Incentives are the art of how we make decisions. Literally being the 10-ton bedrock foundation of economics. Understanding the incentives of your decisions, someone else's decisions, the whole world's decisions, now we are talking about some powerful stuff. This is the type of knowledge that could be more powerful than an elven ring of power so we better pay attention. The bottom line is human behavior is governed by three types of incentives: social, moral, and economic. Understand the difference and you will understand why people do the things they do (not a bad little bit of knowledge to have in your backpocket). SOCIAL: You want to fit in don't you? It is part of our social wacky animal need to feel like a member of a group. People do things to be socially acceptable to others. A case in point nobody wants to be the person in a crowded room that gives off the pungent aroma of sweaty socks with an added dose of sweaty armpits. People have an incentive to be clean, to dab on the deodorant daily