What Sahar Yousef has said about Persuasive technology and engagement design
3 quotes · 1 episode · Oct 15, 2026
Sahar Yousef, Cognitive neuroscientist at UC Berkeley and founder of the Becoming Superhuman Lab, specializing in productivity and cognitive neuroplasticity, has been quoted on Persuasive technology and engagement design 3 times in 1 episode of The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett, most recently on October 15, 2026. Each quote below is verbatim and links to the moment it was said.
In their words
Yousef argues that technology default settings are designed by neuroscientists working at tech companies to make users hooked.
“These are cognitive neuroscientists, behavioral neuroscientists that work at these companies to get you hooked”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Phone Addiction Scientist: Doing This Gives You An Hour Back Every Day! | Dr Sahar Yousef (Oct 15, 2026) · Listen from 17:57
Yousef argues that big tech copied the food industry's playbook for creating addiction to sugar and processed food.
“it is eerily similar to how the food industry got us addicted to sugar and processed food”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Phone Addiction Scientist: Doing This Gives You An Hour Back Every Day! | Dr Sahar Yousef (Oct 15, 2026) · Listen from 33:04
Yousef recounts that a tech company recruitment offer to work on engagement paid four times her academic salary.
“The compensation for that particular role was four times my annual salary doing public research at that time”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Phone Addiction Scientist: Doing This Gives You An Hour Back Every Day! | Dr Sahar Yousef (Oct 15, 2026) · Listen from 1:51:00
Episodes
Phone Addiction Scientist: Doing This Gives You An Hour Back Every Day! | Dr Sahar YousefThe Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett · Oct 15, 2026 · 2 h 14 min
Steven Bartlett and neuroscientist Sahar Yousef discuss phone addiction, tech design that hijacks attention, focus sprints, chronotypes, multitasking costs, and AI's threat to independent thinking.
Sahar Yousef on other topics
- Artificial intelligence · 2 quotes
- Focus sprint · 2 quotes
- Smartphone addiction · 1 quote
- Human multitasking · 1 quote
- Chronotype · 1 quote
- Rumination · 1 quote
- Brain breaks and boredom · 1 quote
- Task prioritization (MITs and LITs) · 1 quote