Approval Fatigue: Baseline Conditioning Risks in AI Agent Workflows
GlenBradley · x · 2026-09-02
The post argues that "approval fatigue" in AI interfaces is fundamentally a result of baseline-rate conditioning.
Core Argument:
- If 99 out of 100 approval prompts are routine and harmless, the interface trains the user to click "Approve" without thinking.
- By the time the 100th prompt appears—which may be genuinely consequential—the user has already learned to treat an "approval request" as a ceremonial obstacle, clicking through without genuine oversight.
Implication: This is less about fatigue and more about the accidental maladaptive conditioning of human attention. It serves as a warning for designers of AI agent workflows to prevent safety mechanisms from being bypassed due to user habituation.
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