[somebody78978]

Regarding TurboTax, I'm pretty sure the clients want the software to work slower; there are times when the software just pauses and says something like "Checking over to make sure we found all deductions", even though obviously all of that work has already been done.

[xyzelement]

I was actually thinking about that case - does the slowness "suggest" that the software is really thinking deeply and working hard for me. I do think you have a good point.

[adamckay]

It does indeed. Here's an article that discusses it more [1]. I know of a few thins that introduce an artificial wait with a progress bar to make the user feel like it's doing something complex.

There's also situations in the real world too, coin counting machines apparently also delay showing the results because people won't believe that dumping a jar full of coins into a machine and having an instant answer can be accurate.

People also do it too, locksmiths may umm and ah when called out to pick a lock because if they do it too quickly customers can feel aggrieved at a large invoice or even feel less safe in their homes if they've seen their front door picked in 10 seconds.

1 - https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/02/why-s...