TOO MUCH INFORMATION

A former presidential adviser considers the complexities of information disclosure.

Sunstein, a legal scholar who, in the Obama White House, oversaw federal regulations that required disclosure about such matters as nutrition and workplace safety, opens his latest book by asking, “When should government require companies, employers, hospitals, and others to disclose information?” His short answer: whenever doing so makes people happier or helps them make decisions. But as he notes, “Whether it’s right to disclose bad news depends on the people and the situation. One size does not fit all.” In these essays, Sunstein addresses key questions policymakers should consider when deciding whether to disclose or request information. Topics include the reasons people might or might not want information (a friend joked that he “ruined popcorn” after the FDA finalized a regulation that movie theaters and restaurants had to disclose caloric content); the psychological factors to consider when designing disclosures, such as that some people don’t read them, especially when, as with software downloads, they’re long; and the value people place on social media, an essay in which he notes a paradox: “the use of Facebook makes people, on average, a bit less happy—more likely to be depressed, more likely to be anxious, less satisfied with their lives,” yet many people “would demand a lot of money to give it up.” Despite the use of jargon such as “hedonic loss” and “availability heuristics,” the narrative is clear and relatable. Sunstein even delivers a few zingers, as when he notes in the chapter on “sludge,” the term for the excessive paperwork people wade through to cancel magazine subscriptions or sign up for free school meals: “The Department of the Treasury, and the IRS in particular, win Olympic gold for sludge production.”

An accessible treatise on the need to ensure that information improves citizens’ well-being.