{
  "id": "moral-hazard.trap",
  "term": "moral hazard",
  "sense": "trap",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 18,
  "domain": "economics",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "a protective guarantee raises the loss wall, allowing the risk-exposure parameter to drift upward; because the cost of leaving the guarantee exceeds the cost of the higher exposure, the actor stays within the enlarged window",
  "folk_gloss": "the tendency to take more risks because one is insulated from the consequences",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "window.range",
      "wall.range-end",
      "parameter.condition",
      "drift.aimless"
    ],
    "interaction": "the guarantee lifts the loss wall, so the risk-exposure parameter drifts upward, making staying inside the protective window cheaper than exiting it",
    "novel_properties": [
      "incentive-driven wall shift",
      "stay-in-trap payoff"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "moral hazard"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — the trap that pays to stay in"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-moral-hazard.trap"
}