Russell Golman of Carnegie Mellon University and Silvia Saccardo of Carnegie Mellon University review “May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases – And What We Can Do about It” by Alex Edmans. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Explores how one might separate myth from reality, providing a practical guide to help people think more critically about topics including how to run a company and invest money, what drives global warming and the spread of pandemics, and which policies lawmakers should pass and voters should support.”

We commonly think of information as a means to an end. However, a growing theoretical and experimental literature suggests that information may directly enter the agent's utility function. This can create an incentive to avoid information, even when it is useful, free, and independent of strategic considerations. We review research documenting the occurrence of information avoidance, as well as theoretical and empirical research on reasons why people avoid information, drawing from economics, psychology, and other disciplines. The review concludes with a discussion of some of the diverse (and often costly) individual and societal consequences of information avoidance.