This article is intended to be a contribution to the discourse on evaluation in the humanities and on its effects, including – and above all – those not foreseen (for naïvety or superficiality) and those unintended (for failure to understand that the ‘one size fits all’ cannot be applied indiscriminately). Evaluation is not good or bad: it is its use that should make us aware and careful. What has been reported derives from years of observation of the dynamics of research in the field of human and social sciences, and unfortunately from the awareness that these dynamics are often oriented by motivations that are outside the scope of its primary purpose, which is the advancement of knowledge and well-being of society.