Less is More

Information Overload

The overwhelming nature of today's information environment is affecting our mental processing and decision-making. Shankar Vedantam highlights how the accessibility of information can lead to anxiety and stress, as seen in Brian McLaughlin's experience during the 2020 presidential election. Brian's obsession with news updates disrupted his personal life and mental health, illustrating the negative impact of information overload 1.

For me, a lot of it was Twitter, and I ended up just on my phone all the time for a few months leading up to the election, just trying to get new tidbits of information and just kind of always finding myself just hooked into it.

--- Unknown

Vedantam further explains that the sheer volume of information can lead to cognitive overload, where people struggle to differentiate between high and low-quality information, often averaging them out instead 2.

   

Perceived Risk

The way people assess risk is influenced by how information is presented, particularly in pharmaceutical advertising. Niro Sivanathan explains the dilution effect, where listing both major and minor side effects in ads can lead consumers to underestimate the severity of the major ones 3. This phenomenon was tested by showing volunteers different versions of drug ads, revealing that those exposed only to major side effects perceived the drug as less risky and more effective 4.

Listing a shopping list of side effects, both major side effects, such as heart attack and stroke, coupled with some minor side effects, such as itchy feet, long toenails, etcetera, dilutes people's overall risk assessment of that drug.

--- Niro Sivanathan

This insight into risk perception highlights the importance of how information is structured and its impact on decision-making.