​​Cognitive Bias: A Feature, Not a Bug

Sometimes people think something is a design flaw, but it’s really a design feature.

Let’s pretend that you are new to Gmail. As a new user, you find yourself complaining about the five-second delay in sending email messages and you call it a bug-a flaw in the software. However, after using Gmail for a few days, you realize that you used the recall email feature several times a month. After using the recall feature, you think to yourself, “Wow! I love Gmail’s feature that allows me to recall my email!”

The Google engineers had an objective in mind: they wanted users to have the ability to recall incomplete and embarrassing emails, and they intentionally designed the app to have that feature.

The Gmail five-second delay might look like a design flaw, but it is a design feature.

Something analogous is true of cognitive biases.

Cognitive biases are judgment shortcuts that predispose us to belong to a group and to act decisively when we have gaps in our information. People think that they’re design flaws in human thought-and with good reason: cognitive biases can damage us and the people around us. They can lead to poor decisions like judging someone based on their religion, school, or background. But, in fact, cognitive biases aren’t design flaws but instead design features of…