Information bias
Seeking more information even when it can't change what you'll do.
What it means
The tendency to value and pursue information for its own sake — believing more is always better — even when the additional information cannot affect the decision at hand. People treat the act of acquiring data as inherently worthwhile, conflating the comfort of knowing with the usefulness of knowing, and so order tests, run analyses, and gather facts whose every possible result would lead to the same choice. The bias is reinforced by a sense that thoroughness equals diligence and by discomfort with acting on incomplete knowledge. In medicine it drives over-testing that adds cost, delay, and risk of false positives without improving care; in management and policy it fuels analysis that postpones action. The corrective is the decision-theoretic question 'value of information': ask whether any outcome of the inquiry would actually change the decision before paying to obtain it.
Examples
Physicians and patients often request a diagnostic test even when the same treatment would follow regardless of whether the result is positive or negative.
A hiring panel books a fourth interview round for a candidate everyone already wants, delaying the offer by two weeks because gathering more feels like diligence rather than dithering.
A shopper spends a fortnight comparing fridge specifications when only one model actually fits the alcove — no amount of reading could change which one goes in.
First described in Baron, Beattie & Hershey (1988).