Principle of psychological acceptability

The principle of psychological acceptability was proposed as one of the design patterns for computer security by Jerome Saltzer and Michael Schroeder in their seminal paper The Protection of Information in Computer Systems. Psychological acceptability is a the idea that the security mechanisms of a computer system should align as closely as possible to the functional expectations of system users. By providing security mechanisms that do not burden or inconvenience users, architects can achieve security without alienation users or encouraging them to find ways to avoid security mechanisms.