POWER-INSULATED FEEDBACK RECALIBRATION THEORY (PIFRT)

AbstractThis document proposes the Power-Insulated Feedback Recalibration Theory (PIFRT), an integrative framework for investigating how economic, political, institutional, social, cultural, and network-based power may alter the practical effectiveness of corrective feedback and, under specified conditions, contribute to changes in decision-making, behavioral norms, reward-seeking, and institutional dynamics.The framework distinguishes feedback access from feedback credibility, accountability linkage, and enforcement effectiveness. It proposes that feedback insulation may interact with repeated uncorrected behavior, consequence asymmetry, cognitive reinterpretation, moral disengagement, reward adaptation, and network reinforcement. These mechanisms may operate at individual, organizational, institutional, and interconnected network levels.The primary analytical case, Power-Insulated Reward-Norm Recalibration (PIRNR), addresses a specific pathway in which a powerful actor becomes less exposed to effective corrective consequences while repeated behavior, social reinforcement, and context-dependent reward adaptation potentially alter behavioral and normative boundaries.The formal architecture includes operational variables, bounded indices, dynamic update equations, logistic outcome models, weighted network representations, reinforcing and balancing feedback loops, boundary conditions, and competing explanations. The macro-level network formulation permits any finite number N of interconnected systemic units, with N>1 required for an explicitly multi-unit network analysis.The document also specifies 30 comparative case types, 18 research domains, 12 principal hypotheses, proposed longitudinal and computational methods, and a structured protocol for empirical evaluation. Clinical constructs and neurobiological processes are treated cautiously: behavioral observations alone cannot establish a psychiatric diagnosis or demonstrate a particular biological change.PIFRT is presented as a proposed theoretical framework rather than an established universal law. Its central claims remain subject to construct validation, empirical testing, model comparison, independent replication, and revision in response to counterevidence.Keywords: power, feedback insulation, corrective feedback, behavioral recalibration, normative drift, moral disengagement, reward adaptation, decision-making, network reinforcement, corporate governance, political power, control theory, computational social science