CONCEPT
Cognitive Ease
Kahneman's term for the overall state of System 1 — the felt quality of mental work that determines whether processing runs smoothly or strains against difficulty, and whose manipulation shapes judgment without the judger's awareness.
Cognitive ease is the subjective signal that accompanies cognitive processing. When ease is high — when inputs are familiar, clear, and consistent with expectations — the mind operates in a state of relaxed engagement, producing intuitive judgments that feel right. When ease is low — when inputs are novel, unclear, or contradictory — the mind enters a state of cognitive strain that signals the need for System 2 engagement. The felt ease is not merely descriptive; it is causal. Manipulating cognitive ease — through typography, repetition, rhyme, priming — changes judgments about truth, liking, and confidence. AI collaboration produces sustained high cognitive ease: smooth outputs, conversational pace, immediate feedback. The architecture trains users to expect ease, and the expectation eliminates the strain that would activate critical evaluation.
In The You On AI Field Guide
Kahneman documented cognitive ease through a family of experimental demonstrations: statements that rhyme are rated as more accurate; ideas presented in clear fonts are rated as more profound;
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