Mid‑Level Goals Anchor Social Coordination

Many features of human behavior and institutions (attention, blame, teachability, norm enforcement, observability) peak at intermediate levels of a goal hierarchy, not at the highest or the lowest levels. That mid‑level focus explains why cultural norms, laws, and everyday coordination are stable where they are, and why abstraction to very high‑level goals typically fails without new incentive structures. — Recognizing mid‑level goals as the primary locus of social coordination reframes debates about institutional reform, corporate power, and norm change — telling policymakers where interventions (measurement, incentives, public narratives) are most likely to stick.