Author Cass Sunstein engages in conversation with Eldar Shafir about Sunstein's new book "Too Much Information: Understanding What You Don't Know"
How much information is too much? Do we need to know how many calories are in the giant vat of popcorn that we bought on our way into the movie theater? Do we want to know if we are genetically predisposed to a certain disease? In Too Much Information, Cass Sunstein examines the effects of information on our lives. Policymakers emphasize “the right to know,” but Sunstein takes a different perspective, arguing that the focus should be on human well-being and what information contributes to it. Government should require companies, employers, hospitals, and others to disclose information not because of a general “right to know” but when the information in question would significantly improve people's lives.
In this virtual event, Cass Sunstein and Eldar Shafir will engage in a discussion about how information can make us happy or miserable, and why we sometimes avoid it and sometimes seek it out.
About the speakers:
Cass R. Sunstein, Professor at Harvard Law School, was Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration. He is the author of, among other books, "The Cost-Benefit Revolution", "How Change Happens", and "Nudge".
Eldar Shafir is Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University and the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. He is a behavioral scientist and economist and the co-author of the influential book "Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much".
This event is presented in partnership with The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.
To access this virtual event, please go to Crowdcast to save your seat at this link.
