[robertlutece]

the cobra effect

The British government, concerned about the number of venomous cobras in Delhi, offered a bounty for every dead cobra. Initially, this was a successful strategy; large numbers of snakes were killed for the reward. Eventually, however, enterprising people began to breed cobras for the income.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive

[fragmede]

you left out the best/worst part!

> When the government became aware of this, the reward program was scrapped. When cobra breeders set their now-worthless snakes free, the wild cobra population further increased.

[simonh]

The French tried this with rats in Vietnam, with the same result.

[Stratoscope]

This was the Great Hanoi Rat Massacre of 1902.

French officials wanted a lifestyle more like home, including flush toilets.

So they built a sewer system. It was a perfect breeding ground for rats.

Now, Hanoi had a rat problem.

They hired exterminators, but it wasn't enough. So they offered a bounty to anyone who would kill a rat and bring in the severed tail as proof. It was much easier for them to dispose of a collection of rat tails instead of entire rat carcasses.

The locals quickly figured out that you could remove a rat's tail without killing it, and send it back into the sewers to breed more rats with fresh young tails.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hanoi-rat-massacre-190...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hanoi_Rat_Massacre

Here is an article that ties together the rat massacre, the cobra effect, factory workers' gloves, overtime pay, and heat-based bonuses:

https://www.corporate-rebels.com/blog/leaders-rules

[fragmede]

I wonder if, with the proliferation of smartphones, any government will try it again with more rules to maker it harder to game, like limiting the number that will be paid out, and requiring video evidence of the kill. It's harder to

[lesuorac]

I think you should really just require the corpse; if somebody wants to setup a trap it should be fine for them to bring a bucket of 30 corpses instead of a video where an official has to count to 30.

I suspect if you time-box the reward that'll fix the cobra effect problem. Announce that you'll only pay for dead rats for ~4 months and at least in the final month people should realize that its time to kill the golden goose and provide all the rats they have instead of breeding for more.

[ben_w]

If they do, they'll be ignoring the last 12 months of "oh hey these generative AI can make pictures of anything now".

Note that I'm not saying they won't, just that it's a bad idea in a new and exciting way.

[kryptiskt]

The same thing happens in software development when finding or fixing bugs are rewarded.