>[!abstract]
>Campbell’s law holds that the more a quantitative indicator is used for social decision-making, the more it becomes vulnerable to corruption pressures and the more it distorts the very processes it is intended to monitor. Formulated by social scientist Donald T. Campbell, the law highlights how heavy reliance on performance metrics can incentivize manipulation, fraud, or superficial improvements that mask underlying problems. Closely related to [[Goodhart’s law]], it emphasizes that measurement-driven accountability, if unchecked, can degrade the validity of data and ultimately undermine institutional effectiveness.
>[!related]
>- **North** (upstream): [[Performance measurement]]
>- **West** (similar): [[Goodhart’s law]] (in organizational decision-making), [[Perverse incentive]]
>- **East** (different): [[Robust measurement]]
>- **South** (downstream): [[Teaching to the test]]