Excessive data hinders decision-making rather than improves it.
Gross's 1964 term, later popularised by Toffler. The finding that matters: past a point, more information reduces decision accuracy while increasing decision confidence.
In practice
- A board given forty pages of appendix and one page of recommendation reads the recommendation with more confidence and no more information.
- A shopper given fourteen specifications for two phones chooses on brand, having spent an hour reading.