Human biases, behavioural economics, and cognitive psychology — why they matter and how we use them in tech.

1. Don’t be biased!
Biases and why they matter in tech & design
@kingsidharth | TechSparks 2018

2. Behavioural Economics &
Cognitive Psychology

3. Are you at 18 years or older?
Enter
Exit
Ad
Ad
Ad
AdAd
Content? Nah bruh. Tis ad too.

4. Incentives &
Re-enforcement
The amount of ads you will tolerate is directly
proportional to your libido
Hacking the Reward Center

5. Game Theory
Study of Incentives & Choices

6. Incels
The reddit sub-culture that has
produced 100s of mass-murderers

7. Why?

8. Denial
Basis of Cults, Religions, & Aadhar 😏

10. Man with a Hammer
Syndrome
Not everything is a design/tech/science/
math/scale problem…

11. Why do consultants get paid
to say the obvious things?

12. Agency Cost
Because you know & care too much…

13. Why do users hate most
redesigns?
or why do we all hate change?

14. Pavlovian Association
Usability equals Convention equals
Past experiences guide future behaviour

15. What you think
What you do

16. What you think
What you do

17. –Pink Floyd
“If you don’t eat your meat, you won’t get any pudding.
How can you get any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?”

18. Heuristics
Rule of Thumbs, Common Accepted Knowledge

19. Heuristics
when you take em too far blindly…
Biases
become

20. Those who break free from
these biases become trend
setters

21. Buzz Feed & Twitter
Fights?
What’s common between…
and the Hacker News experiment

22. Reciprocation
Friend of my friend is friend…

24. Why does Amazon
always have a
Sale?
Answer: to boil a frog

25. Relative Contrast
Bias from

26. Have you ever tried to snatch a
bone out of a dog’s mouth?
You want to test drive this car, m’am?
Try FREE for 30 days…

27. Immediate Deprivation
If I never had it, there was no loss. But
give me and take it back; I feel it!
Bias from

28. Why do people forward
obviously stupid shit on
WhatsApp?

29. How can people working
towards the same goal
disagree so much?

31. Information Availability/
Asymmetry
Bias from
Mother of The Dunning–Kruger Effect,
Lord of the Valley of Despair

32. The Habit Loop
Incentives

33. Instamojo
Link Based Commerce

34. Trigger: Get Sale
Action: Check Dashboard
Reward: Money in Bank

35. Trigger: Get Sale
Action: Check Dashboard
Reward: Money in Bank
Reward took T+3 days 😭

36. Instant Payout
Get money in bank 24x7

37. Trigger: Get Sale
Action: Click Button
Reward: Money in Bank
Behavioural Economics FTW!

38. Next Day Payout
For low-margin Businesses

39. Observe Behaviour,
Biases, and the Self
Because we build & design for humans

40. Thank You!
Questions, comments, or threats?
@kingsidharth