Description:

Abstract: When attempting to improve objects, ideas, or situations, people systematically overlook subtractive changesi. This new finding in cognitive psychology may be one reason that people struggle to mitigate overburdened schedules, institutional red tape, and damaging effects on the planet. In this seminar, we will:

1) review the experimental evidence to understand how and why people overlook subtraction; 2) consider possible implications of this finding for complex systems (as described in Subtractii, Chapter 6); and

3) discuss ways to rigorously study these implications.

i Adams, G.S., Converse, B.A., Hales, A.H., Klotz, L.E. People systematically overlook subtractive changes. Nature 592, 258–261 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03380-y

ii Klotz, L. Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less. Flatiron Books (2021).

Speaker: Professor Leidy Klotz, The University of Virginia

Host: Professor Adilson Motter