The Karenina Principle: A Decision Rule for Contradicting Requirements

We propose the Generalized Karenina Principle as a decision rationale for allocating a finite resource among essential requirements. Beyond competing for resources, requirements may be contradictory: gratifying one can directly impair another. Maximizing a multiplicative measure of success yields an adaptive rule that restores the optimal balance among gratification levels. In the two-requirement model, interior Karenina-optimal allocation remains locally stable as contradiction increases, whereas needresponsive allocation can generate destabilizing overcompensation. With interacting decision makers, Karenina-optimal reallocation also raises the threshold for collective instability. The principle bases adaptive allocation on restoring optimal gratification ratios rather than responding to individual deficits.