The Presenter's Paradox: More Is Not Always Better

Abstract

The presenter's paradox is a phenomenon wherein adding low-value information alongside high-value information reduces the overall effectiveness of communication. This is because receivers tend to evaluate messages using an averaging, rather than additive, approach. In the context of journal submissions, the presenter's paradox arises when authors undermine their papers’ value by adding extra components that fail to maintain the high standard established in the core of the paper. These additions might take the form of excessive control variables, supplementary analyses, hypotheses, words, tables, figures, or citations. We argue that authors should construct journal submissions with the presenter's paradox in mind––because in many cases, less is more.