When the Score Takes Over

A better score. A better outcome?
A tracker records more activity. A school reports higher results. A workplace rewards greater output. The numbers improve. Has the thing they were meant to serve improved too?
In When the Score Takes Over, Layla Ihsaan follows documented research across personal life and institutions to examine how a measure becomes an instruction, a reward or a gate.
The enquiry moves from streaks and school grades to public ratings, healthcare algorithms, workplace incentives and AI benchmarks. It explores how a record can become a goal, why a convenient proxy can miss the people who need help, and what happens when a score begins shaping the behaviour it describes.
The book also makes room for useful measurement: monitoring that supports a chosen goal, incentives that improve learning, comparisons that reduce energy use and feedback that helps people act.
For readers curious about human behaviour, technology and the systems shaping everyday decisions, these real cases offer a clearer way to judge a familiar promise: a better number means a better result.
What should a score help us see-and what should it never be allowed to decide on its own?