From Cass Sunstein: How administrative sludge protects us from our lack of self-control and impulsivity

Wading Through the Sludge

Cass R. Sunstein

"Administrative burdens might also be designed to counteract self-control problems and impulsivity. Small administrative burdens are frequently imposed online, with questions asking whether you are 'sure you want to' send an e-mail without a subject line, activate a ticket, cancel a recent order, or delete a file. Those burdens, usually coming from the private sector, can be extremely helpful in making people consider their decisions carefully. More broadly, a degree of sludge, imposed by public as well as private institutions, might make sense for life-altering decisions, such as marriage and divorce.

It is true that we might not always trust public officials—legislators and bureaucrats—to decide whether sludge is a good strategy for helping people to avoid reckless decisions. But it is hardly impossible, in light of high-stakes choices, to defend administrative burdens as an effort to promote reflection and to provide valuable information. The accessibility of abortion is a more controversial case, of course. People disagree about whether administrative burdens are a reasonable means of discouraging ill-informed or insufficiently considered abortion decisions, or whether they merely pressure women not to exercise their constitutional rights."