Don's Home Business Sludge - Why and How Business procedures, Apps, .. are so difficult

A simple example is what I call the unsubscribe trap, where with one click, you can sign up for some service or subscription. But then to unsubscribe, they make you jump through hoops. You have to call, you have to wait, and then they try to sell you something. That’s sludge.
THALER: I think that one is clearly intentional. I’ve personally tried to convince to stop doing this. And somebody has told me, “No, that would cost us too much money."

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript.
Feakonomics show #627 sludge, Part 1 the world is drowning in it

Health Insurance Plans

Frictions or Mental Gaps: What’s Behind the Information We (Don’t) Use and When Do We Care?- Benjamin Handel is Associate Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley,
California. Joshua Schwartzstein is Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts.
In a number of situations, there is strong evidence that people do not translate readily available information into the knowledge that would help them make better decisions. For example, people may choose a health insurance plan that costs $500 per year more in premiums in order to obtain a deductible that is $250 lower