Users' minds take shortcuts to get through the day. Usually they’re harmless. Even helpful. But what happens when they’re not? In this talk I’ll use real-world examples to identify some particularly nasty biases that frequently lead users to make bad decisions. I'll then talk about some content strategy and design choices we can use in our apps, designs, and platforms to redirect or eliminate the impact of those biases. Finally, I'll explore our own biases as designers and some methods to prevent our own blind spots from hurting users.

1. Design for Cognitive Bias
Using Mental Shortcuts for Good Instead of Evil

2. #fightbias

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David Dylan Thomas
Principal, Content Strategy
Think Company

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What is cognitive bias?

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A series of shortcuts our minds
take that often help, but sometimes
hurt.

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Reactance

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Survivorship Bias

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Confirmation Bias

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These biases are extremely
difficult to combat
You may not know you have them (bias blind spot)
90% of cognition happens below the conscious level
Even if you do know, you do it anyway!

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Choice architecture: or why you need to know about cognitive bias

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Think about what decisions your user needs to make

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Then think about how people make decisions

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There are content and design choices we can make that
help keep harmful cognitive biases in check
(or leverage them for good).

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Blind Résumés

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Whom would you rather hire?

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Why do you need that information?

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Content Strategy: Signal vs.
Noise
Signal
Qualifications
Experience
Noise
Gender
Race

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Cognitive Fluency

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Easy to read = Easy to do

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Hard to read = Hard to do

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Which of these would you rather fill out?

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Which of the following is
true?
There are 53 African
nations
in the United Nations
There are 55 African
nations in the United
Nations

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“An apple a day keeps the doctor away”

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“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit”

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Whom do you trust?

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“This holds for name
evaluation, voting
preferences, and
occupational status.”

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How Amazon fights primacy

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How to fight the
bandwagon effect

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How to fight the framing effect

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Should this person drive this car?

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How might this person drive this car?

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How might we do a better job of
moving people around?

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Dark patterns?

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Choice supportive bias

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If you are willing to disclose to your user why you have
designed the way you have, maybe it’s not a dark
pattern?

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What about our own
cognitive biases?

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Notational bias

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Also, projection bias…

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Until 1986, the New
York Times
prohibited the use of
“Ms.” as an honorific
for women.

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Language doesn’t just describe reality, it shapes it.
Mbiyimoh Ghogomu

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Executive branch
Legislative branch
Publisher
Platform

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Evidentiality

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What if stuff that wasn’t confirmed was harder to read?
Daniel Craig’s final outing as 007 has finally been named with the appropriately titled No
Time to Die. The announcement came Tuesday with a short video teaser that showed
Craig’s dapper James Bond taking a short stroll, and then the title reveal.
It is rumored that the film’s previous director, Danny Boyle, left the project because he
wanted to kill off James Bond in the end, a decision that Eon wouldn’t stand for.

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Confirmation Bias

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2 4 6 ?

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2 4 6 8

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2 4 6 7

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Speculative design

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Deformation
Professionnelle

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Our jobs are harder
than we think

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Project Maven
Battlefield AI

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Project Maven
Battlefield AI
Dragonfly
Censored Search in China

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We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’
society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and
computers, profit motives and property rights are considered
more important than people, the giant triplets of racism,
materialism, and militarism are incapable of being
conquered.

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We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’
society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and
computers, profit motives and property rights are considered
more important than people, the giant triplets of racism,
materialism, and militarism are incapable of being
conquered.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

101. #fightbias @movie_pundit www.daviddylanthomas.com#fightbias @movie_pundit www.daviddylanthomas.com
Thank You