Processing Difficulty Effect
Information that is harder to process is perceived as more credible and profound.
The processing difficulty effect (or disfluency effect) describes how stimuli that are harder to process are attributed with greater depth and credibility. Text printed in hard-to-read fonts is rated as more accurate and profound. Overly technical jargon in academic writing creates an illusion of depth. This effect paradoxically rewards unclear communication with credibility.
What it looks like in the wild.
- Science Academic Jargon A study found that academic philosophy texts rated as more profound when written in complex, hard-to-parse prose — even when a simpler paraphrase conveyed the identical content.
Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.
Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.
A customer returns a straightforward blender and buys a model with dozens of buttons and unclear functions, believing it's the professional choice.
When comparing two cars, someone ignores the reliable model with good reviews and chooses the one with a confusing array of unexplained features.
Biases rarely arrive alone.
Understand more. Assume less.
188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
Get Debias on Google Play