Goldilocks principle

The Goldilocks principle is named by analogy to the children's story "The Three Bears", in which a little girl named Goldilocks tastes three different bowls of porridge and finds that she prefers porridge that is neither too hot nor too cold, but has just the right temperature.[1] The concept of "just the right amount" is easily understood and applied to a wide range of disciplines, including developmental psychology, biology,[2] astronomy, economics[3] and engineering.

Applications

• In cognitive science and developmental psychology, the Goldilocks effect or principle refers to an infant's preference to attend to events that are neither too simple nor too complex according to their current representation of the world.[4] This effect was observed in infants, who are less likely to look away from a visual sequence when the current event is moderately probable, as measured by an idealized learning model.

• In astrobiology, the Goldilocks zone refers to the habitable zone around a star. As Stephen Hawking put it, "like Goldilocks, the development of intelligent life requires that planetary temperatures be 'just right'".[5] The Rare Earth Hypothesis uses the Goldilocks principle in the argument that a planet must be neither too far away from nor too close to a star and galactic center to support life, while either extreme would result in a planet incapable of supporting life.[6] Such a planet is colloquially called a "Goldilocks Planet".[7][8] Paul Davies has argued for the extension of the principle to cover the selection of our universe from a (postulated) multiverse: "observers arise only in those universes where, like Goldilocks's porridge, things are by accident 'just right'".[9]

• In medicine, it can refer to a drug that can hold both antagonist (inhibitory) and agonist (excitatory) properties. For example, the antipsychotic Aripiprazole causes not only antagonism of dopamine D2 receptors in areas such as the mesolimbic area of the brain (which show increased dopamine activity in psychosis) but also agonism of dopamine receptors in areas of dopamine hypoactivity, such as the mesocortical area.

• In economics, a Goldilocks economy sustains moderate economic growth and low inflation, which allows a market-friendly monetary policy. A Goldilocks market occurs when the price of commodities sits between a bear market and a bull market. Goldilocks pricing is a marketing strategy that, although not directly related to the Goldilocks principle, uses product differentiation to offer three versions of a product to corner different parts of the market: a high-end version, a middle version, and a low-end version.

• In business, the Goldilocks Principle describes for what quantities one should create or sell products. It states that one should always create/sell a product in at least large, medium, and small sizes. This will cover the widest range of people who want the product.[10]

• In marketing, the Goldilocks Effect/Principle/Theory is to offer versions of a product at high, mid and low prices with the aim of encouraging the buyer to purchase the mid-priced product rather than a cheaper product. [11]

• In software development, the Goldilocks Principle describes how many features one should include into the software product. It states that one should always create a product with a slimmed down set of features, a medium set of features, and one with a maximum set of features. This will cover the widest range of people who want and use the product.[12]

• In communication, the Goldilocks principle describes the amount, type, and detail of communication necessary in a system to maximize effectiveness while minimizing redundancy and excessive scope on the "too much" side and avoiding incomplete or inaccurate communication on the "too little" side.[13]

• In mathematics, the "Goldilocks Zone" is often used to refer to the near horizontal "shelf area" of many third-degree – and higher – polynomials such as ƒ(x)=x³. It is sometimes strictly defined as the area between which the slope of the first-order derivative does not exceed ±15° from the horizontal although less popular definitions based on rates of change are sometimes used.[14]

• In statistics, the "Goldilocks Fit" references a linear regression model that represents the perfect flexibility to reduce the error caused by the bias and variance.

• In design sprint, the "Goldilocks Quality" means to create a prototype with just enough quality to evoke honest reactions from customers.[15]

See also

• Cosmic Jackpot
• Frugality
• Anthropic principle
• Big History
• Fine-tuned universe
• Golden mean (philosophy)

References

1. "The Story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears".
2. Martin, S J (August 2011). "Oncogene-induced autophagy and the Goldilocks principle". Autophagy. 7 (8): 922–3. doi:10.4161/auto.7.8.15821. PMID 21552010.
3. Boulding, K.E. (1981). Evolutionary Economics. Sage Publications. p. 200. ISBN 9780803916487.
4. Kidd, Celeste; Piantadosi, Steven T.; Aslin, Richard N. (23 May 2012). "The Goldilocks Effect: Human Infants Allocate Attention to Visual Sequences That Are Neither Too Simple Nor Too Complex". PLOS ONE. 7 (5): e36399. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...736399K. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036399. PMC 3359326. PMID 22649492.
5. S Hawking, The Grand Design (London 2011) p. 194
6. Weingroff, Marianne. "Activity 1 Teacher Guide: The Goldilocks Principle". Archived from the original on 4 December 2017. Retrieved 25 October 2007.
7. Muir, Hazel (25 April 2007). "'Goldilocks' planet may be just right for life". New Scientist. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
8. "The Goldilocks Planet". BBC Radio 4. 31 August 2005. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
9. Davies, Paul (2008). The Goldilocks Enigma. London: HMH. p. 298. ISBN 9780547348469.
10. Nikolai, Cynthia (May 2012). "cynthianikolai.com/theories.html". Retrieved 1 April 2020.
11. Alagappan, Sathesh (December 2014). "The Goldilocks Effect: Simple but clever marketing". Retrieved 11 June 2020.
12. Nikolai, Cynthia (May 2012). "cynthianikolai.com/theories.html". Retrieved 1 April 2020.
13. "Goldilocks communication: Just the right amount of information". 18 May 2011.
14. Nolan, Jennifer (2000). Maths Quest 11 (PDF). John Wiley. p. 188.
15. Knapp, Jake (2016). Sprint: how to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days. Simon & Schuster. p. 170.