What is social desirability bias feedback?

Social desirability bias feedback is a concept in personal epistemology: Direct results and other peoples reactions are both valuable but different types of feedback.

Example: You launch a product feature and track two things: conversion rate (reality feedback) and what your team says about it in the retrospective (people feedback). The conversion rate drops 12%. Your teammates say 'the design looks clean' and 'users will get used to it.' Reality is telling you something your colleagues are too polite — or too invested — to say. Both signals matter, but if you had to pick one to act on first, the conversion rate doesn't have social motives.

This concept is part of Phase 24 (Feedback Loops) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for feedback loops.