SELF-REPORT UNRELIABILITY UNDER STRUCTURAL LOAD

Self-assessment under structural load is systematically unreliable. This finding is confirmed across multiple independent research traditions but has not previously been unified under a single named phenomenon, quantified within the high-obligation executive population, or confirmed through convergent clinical evidence from independent research programs. This paper introduces the Recursive Reliability Effect as the named phenomenon for the structural mechanism by which self-assessment accuracy degrades as a recursive function of structural severity: the deeper the structural failure, the less accurately the system self-reports; each engagement with an external system that accepts the corrupted self-report as primary input further degrades the accuracy of subsequent self-reports; and the mechanism preventing accurate self-detection is the same mechanism worsening the structural condition being assessed. The contributions of this paper are: (1) the unified naming of the phenomenon across previously fragmented research domains; (2) Monte Carlo simulation at 10,000 cases quantifying the specific rates within the near-capacity executive population (81.4% domain mismatch, 95% CI: 80.7–82.2%; 73.0% depth minimization, CI: 72.1–73.9%; 61.1% compound risk, CI: 60.1–62.0%); (3) independent clinical confirmation from six published research programs using independent methodologies on independent populations; (4) the formalization of three manifestation trajectories; (5) the structural invariance argument establishing the decision-maker’s self-assessment as the one evaluation input universally present and universally unverified; and (6) five falsification criteria, each genuinely testable. The simulation methodology, structural model architecture, and scoring parameters are proprietary to the LifePillar Institute for Structural Identity Sciences. The general principle for interrupting the recursive loop—external structural measurement that does not take the self-report as primary input—is stated as a scientific implication consistent with the established literature. Specific instrumentation and implementation methodology are proprietary. Keywords: self-report reliability, self-assessment degradation, inverse reliability, structural load, structural identity, Monte Carlo validation, cognitive systems engineering, leadership assessment, domain misidentification, due diligence