THE RECURSIVE RELIABILITY EFFECT

Self-Assessment Degradation in Human Systems Under Load

as a Recursive Structural Mechanism

Classification: LifePillar Institute — Foundational Scientific Document

Don L. Gaconnet, CSE III

Founder, LifePillar Institute for Recursive Sciences

ORCID: 0009-0001-6174-8384

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

Correspondence: don@lifepillar.org

May 2026

Preprint — LifePillar Institute for Recursive Sciences

DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/MVYZT10.13140/RG.2.2.23896.25605

10.5281/zenodo.20099853

Copyright © Don L. Gaconnet, May 2026. All rights reserved.

Abstract

This paper introduces the Recursive Reliability Effect as the named phenomenon for a structural mechanism confirmed across multiple independent research traditions but not previously unified, formally derived, or named: human systems under structural load cannot accurately self-assess, and the degradation of self-assessment accuracy is recursive rather than linear. The effect is established by converging evidence from cognitive load theory (Sweller, 1988), clinical self-assessment research (Davis et al., 2006; Eva & Regehr, 2005), human factors workload assessment (Hart & Staveland, 1988; Webster et al., 2018), and the ACE study’s dose-response compounding findings (Felitti et al., 1998; N = 17,000). The established literature confirms that self-assessment under load is systematically unreliable, that the unreliability does not improve with expertise, that the degradation compounds rather than remaining static, and that external physiological measurement is necessary for accuracy.

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