**New Research Shows Surplus Information Hinders Decision-Making**
A groundbreaking study from the Stevens Institute of Technology has revealed that excess information can impede effective decision-making in everyday scenarios. The research, led by Farber Chair Associate Professor Samantha Kleinberg, a computer scientist at Stevens, challenges the common belief that more information leads to better decisions.
The study, published in the journal *Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications*, found that people’s prior knowledge and beliefs can distract them from effectively using the information present to make a decision. In other words, even a tiny amount of surplus information can have a significant negative effect on decision-making.
“To study how people make decisions, researchers typically create simple diagrams – or causal models – that show how different factors logically interact with each other to yield specific outcomes,” explained Kleinberg.
While individuals can reason effectively about hypothetical scenarios and simple causal models, they struggle when presented with everyday scenarios where extraneous details are introduced. The marks that their ability to effectively use information presented to them quickly becomes compromised.
“This work has significant implications in fields like public health because it means that educational messages need to be simmered down to their most essential parts and carefully presented in order to have a positive impact. If you’re giving people a laundry list of things to consider, then you’re actually making it harder for them to make good decisions,” said Kleinberg.
The study suggests that simplified, focused information improves choices, and that one approach to aid decision-making might be to use AI chatbots to tailor health and nutritional advice to individuals on a case-by-case basis.
Kleinberg’s work opens up a new frontier in understanding how to present information effectively and could have enormous implications for fields like public health, consumer behavior, and education.
The study was funded by the James S. McDonnell Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
The research was published on August 30, 2023, in *Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications*.