Universities may recruit more students to apply (to lower the acceptance rate) and may artificially inflate grades (grade inflation) to improve student profiles and attract higher donations later, without improving teaching quality.

Academics are incentivized by the number of papers published (a target) to secure tenure and funding. This leads to salami-slicing research, rushing incomplete studies, or focusing on easily publishable (but low-impact) topics.

Data centers have become dramatically more energy-efficient per computation.This fuels an exponential surge in demand for AI, cloud streaming, and data storage, causing the total energy consumed by data centers globally to continue rising sharply.

The fast development and distribution of highly effective COVID-19 vaccines based on sound science was met with distrust about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. This led to a large segment of the population actively rejecting the treatment.

Driving becomes effectively cheaper per mile, causing people to drive more often, choose longer commutes, or purchase larger, heavier vehicles, leading to a net increase in total gasoline consumption.

Hospitals are incentivized to reduce the average length of stay (LOS) for financial/efficiency reasons. This can lead to premature discharge of patients who are not fully recovered, potentially causing readmissions that negatively impact overall health outcomes and cost.

A Soviet factory was first given a target for the number of nails and produced tiny, unusable nails. When the target was changed to total weight of nails, they produced one gigantic, unusable nail.