The Curse of Knowledge: How Do Cognitive Biases Affect Development?

We've all encountered a situation when we had to explain something to another person – be it a colleague, a child, a friend or a relative. Sometimes it happens easily and naturally, and sometimes… it turns into real torture. Especially when the person we're explaining to can't “switch on” and understand.

At such moments we begin to think: “How can I not understand this? It’s elementary!” or “He’s just pretending so that I can do his job!” But, most likely, the truth lies much deeper. We forget that once we ourselves did not know this. And this is where the curse of knowledge comes in.

The Curse of Knowledge — a thinking error that causes us to assume that other people have the same knowledge as we do. When a person has certain information, it is often difficult for him to imagine what it would be like not to know it. For him, it is elementary. He does not understand the other person’s position, and this significantly complicates communication.

In this article, we will try to understand how the curse of knowledge affects development and how to avoid its negative consequences.

A bit of history

Systematic errors in thinking are called cognitive biases. They are congenital feature our brain and help it cope with information overload. Cognitive biases simplify our understanding of the world by filling in gaps in knowledge with stereotypes and data from past experiences.

One such prejudice is the curse of knowledge, or, as it is also called, the curse of experience. The curse of knowledge is deeply imprinted in our psychology. As children, we often lack theories of mindthat is, the ability to recognize that other people have their own internal state, which is different from ours.

Research in psychology show that young children given access to information about the location of a hidden toy assume that everyone else, even people outside the room, must also know where it is. As we grow older, we usually overcome this bias, but not entirely. Our deep-seated instincts make us think that everyone perceives the world the same way we do, even though we know that this is not the case.

This phenomenon was studied by a psychologist Baruch FischhoffIn 1975 he conducted experiment. Subjects were presented with a short story with four possible outcomes, after which some participants were told the correct option and others were not. Later, all participants rated the probability of choosing each outcome. Fischhoff found that subjects who were told the correct outcome tended to assign a higher probability to it.

The term “curse of knowledge” was proposed by a psychologist Robin Hogarth. But in scientific circles this concept began to be used in 1989 after articles economists Colin Camerer, George Loewenstein, and Martin Weber. They used the term “curse of knowledge” to illustrate the peculiarity of economic transactions.

Their research shows that salespeople who know their product well may be at a disadvantage compared to those who are less knowledgeable. They may have a hard time tailoring their pitch to customers and persuading them to buy. They also know more about both the product's strengths and weaknesses, so they may charge a lower price.

In 1990, psychologist Elizabeth Newton conducted a series of experimentswhich vividly demonstrated the curse of knowledge. In one of them, she divided the participants into “performers” and “listeners.”

The “performers” tapped out melodies, and the “listeners” tried to guess them. The “performers” assumed that the “listeners” would be able to recognize about half of the songs. But as a result of the experiment, it turned out that they guessed only 3 songs out of 120. The “performers” were unable to abstract themselves from their own knowledge of the song and overestimated how easy it was to identify it.

What is the curse?

The curse of knowledge is closely related to cognitive bias. It is the result of generalizing information based on personal experience and prior knowledge.

Knowledge is the result of assimilating information. However, with each step of data processing, the objective context in our brain is replaced by personalized meaning. The memory of how we acquired the knowledge, the time and context of events are gradually erased. As a result, we become hostages hindsight biasunable to remember how we thought and what we knew before we received new information.

Experienced people with deep knowledge in a particular field are often subject to the curse of knowledge. Everyone has at least once encountered a teacher or lecturer who, despite a huge store of knowledge, could not adequately convey the material to students.

For example, as in this joke videowhich is used in public speaking courses as an illustration of a truly bad speech.
The lecturer overloaded the audience with information and refused to explain the terms. She argued that if the students did not know the material, they should not be in the classroom.

The curse of knowledge negatively affects communication, leads to problems in teamwork. And in such a complex process as software development, cognitive distortions can cause a lot of problems.
Let's look at a few situations where a developer might encounter the curse of knowledge.

Developer and newbie

In the world of technology, the role of a mentor is very important. However, an experienced specialist, with an impressive store of knowledge, can forget that not all things are obvious to beginners. He begins to use specific terms and abstract concepts. And instead of “deciphering” complex moments, he can unconsciously create a feeling of insecurity and stupidity in the student.

When a new employee joins a project, he needs to adapt, get to grips with the processes. He constantly has a lot of questions that he wants to get answers to.

Of course, technical documentation can be a valuable aid for beginners. But it is not always available. Often, only the team leader has all the necessary information on the project. But even if the documentation is available, it will not be possible to completely get rid of questions. It can be quite voluminous and difficult to understand.

Or, on the contrary, a more detailed explanation of some points will be required.

How to solve a problem

To the mentor

1. It is necessary to remember about the curse. Do not forget that each person's experience is individual.

2. Use Freiman method. You need to explain information in words that even a teenager can understand. This helps to strengthen your own knowledge, because it is very difficult to explain a concept without complex terms.

3. Use technical documentation. At a minimum, you need to collect artifacts of project processes: development process flow, schedule, product backlog, contact list, etc. Well-written documents save a lot of time.

4. Explain the context of tasks and processes.

For a newbie

1. Increase the level of knowledge.

2. Value other people's time. Ask specific and precise questions.

3. When working with documentation, pay attention to everything that raises questions. It is necessary to use the fresh perspective of a new employee to suggest improvements in processes and documentation.

4. Don't be afraid to admit if you don't know something.

Developer and customer

Relationships between customers and contractors are also often complicated by the curse of knowledge. The customer may not explain important points, believing that this information is obvious. The contractor may do the work as he or she understood it. And the result will be a situation reminiscent of the famous swing meme.

Making assumptions for the customer is a costly mistake. Lack of information can lead to the development of a system that does not solve the real problem.

How to solve a problem

1. Ask clarifying questions to understand the customer's needs, avoid unnecessary waste of time and resources. If you start performing a task without understanding the details, you can waste time and effort on something that will not bring results.

2. Use open questions. Instead of asking, “Do you need a blue button?” ask, “What is your goal in adding this button to the site?”

3. When creating a product, it is important to focus on business logic, strive to understand the purpose and reasons for actions, and suggest improvements if something seems illogical.

Developer in the team

In an ideal world, a product team works as a single organism, where everyone understands each other at a glance. But the reality is that even with a common vocabulary and a unified picture of the world, misunderstandings can arise, especially when it comes to technical aspects.

The curse of knowledge is most evident when trying to understand working code. Sometimes it seems like the code doesn't need any comments. But over time, the project evolves, requirements change, and the code is rewritten. Failure to follow uniform rules for formatting, naming variables and functions, and code structure makes it difficult to understand.

After some time, even your own code may seem confusing and incomprehensible to a programmer. And someone else's code is a dark forest.

When disagreements arise within a team, the curse of knowledge prevents one from understanding the other's position. Dialogue turns into an argument, which is very unproductive.

But when all employees adhere to a single position, collective delusions can arise. If, despite the lack of objective evidence, the entire team is confident in the correctness of its decision, this is not very good. It is quite possible that there is no room for criticism and alternative proposals in the company.

For example, the stable opinion of the leaders IBM that the personal computer market would never become mass-market, led to the company not securing full rights to the MS-DOS operating system. And as a result, it suffered multi-billion dollar losses.

How to solve a problem

1. Create clear technical specifications, comment the code, use uniform design standards.

2. Code comments should be structured. They are needed to clarify unclear or controversial points, and not just duplicate the code. The best comments answer the question “why is this happening here”, but if the answer to this question is clear from the code itself, a comment is not required.

3. It is important that everyone in the team can ask questions without fear of being ridiculed, that different points of view are encouraged, and that there is space for constructive criticism and alternative proposals.

Developer and user

The curse of knowledge not only affects how we work with each other, but it can also have a negative impact on usability. This cognitive bias can be a serious obstacle to creating user-friendly and understandable interfaces.

Designers who themselves have a good understanding of the product may unwittingly create complex and confusing interfaces without realizing that they may be confusing to the user.

Another problem can be unclear instructions. After all, even the instruction “press the “save” button” can be unclear to the user if the button is in an unusual place.

The curse of knowledge makes you forget that not all users have the same level of knowledge. Some may be experts, while others are beginners, and if you don’t provide them with the information they need, their interaction with the product will turn into a nightmare.

How to solve a problem

1. You need to imagine yourself in the user's place. You can reinstall the program and pay attention to each step of the process. Or use the product on a new device.

2. Usability testing will also allow you to see how the product is perceived by real users and what problems they experience.

3. When creating instructions, you need to explain all actions step by step and avoid unclear wording.

4. You can create a hint system. It will help users understand the interface and perform the necessary actions. Use visual elements. Images, graphs, and videos can make information more accessible and understandable.

Conclusion

The curse of knowledge is a natural part of thinking. It prevents you from clearly communicating your thoughts to others, understanding their position, and communicating productively. By recognizing the existence of the curse of knowledge, you can avoid many mistakes. The main thing is to remember the limitations of perception, consider different points of view, and not be afraid to receive feedback from colleagues and users.

Author of the article Roman Andreev

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