Does More Information Lead to Better Informing?

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of increased information availability on people's ability to process and use information in a judgemental decision making task context. The main findings indicate that increased availability had a detrimental effect on people's information processing efficiency. This, in turn, led to reduced decision accuracy. These findings have important practical implications, as they emphasise the danger of ever increasing information supply enabled by new technology. The findings also suggest a need for future research aimed at improving people's ability to make sense of the available information.