Perverse incentive

A perverse incentive is a situation in which someone does something for their own benefit, even though it has a bad effect on other people. For example, say there is a company that sells candy and they give their employees a bonus if they sell more candy than last month. This might end up making the employees sell more candy than usual and even pressure people to buy it, even if they don't want it. This is bad for the people because they have to spend money they don't want to, and it's bad for the company because it can hurt their reputation as a place that is trying to take advantage of customers. So, the bonus incentive is perverse because it gets the employees to do something that harms other people in exchange for their own benefit.