Link: http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/how-the-low-fat-low-fact-cascade-just-keeps-rolling-along/

In “How the Low-Fat, Low-Fact Cascade Just Keeps Rolling Along”, New York Times science columnist John Tierney discusses the effects of informational cascades in the scientific world. Tierney describes a general definition of information cascades and illustrates examples such as the belief in low fat diets prolonging life and “the crusade against global warming.” He explains how cascades can be created from correct or misleading information, but either way, people may follow the cascade without understanding the issue behind it. His example of the low fat diet may seem out of date now with low carbohydrate diet trends, but the concept still applies.

Tierney cites Dr. Ivo Welch, an economist from Brown University, about the fundamental principal of information cascades. Welch describes how many of the choices we make come down to binary options (i.e. yes or no). Welch explains how the scientific community believed people would partially endorse an option if their intuition conflicted with the choice made by the previous chooser. The problem in this concept shows itself in the development of cascades. Many choices are binary by design or through simplification. The ‘it depends’ answer doesn’t satisfy people needing to make a specific choice, so binary options may force people who typically choose the ‘better’ option through more developed reasoning to follow the crowd. Welch ends by noting how those who don’t follow the crowd are just as capable of reversing a ‘bad’ cascade as those who started it.

The example of diet trends seems to explain where cascades tend to form. Nutritional science represents a field where the more people learn, the less they understand. As more information is uncovered, more questions develop. Because everyone has different intake needs, no overarching statement can be 100% true about dieting. The business world has taken advantage of this grey area as seen in the growing number of dieting books, nutritional supplements, and food products. People have the choice to eat or not eat some food or take or not take some supplement, but if an influential person makes a choice about some product, people may believe his/her choice without having any knowledge of the product. There are millions of diet and nutritional supplements sold every year, many of them not approved by the FDA. People continue to buy these products, even when some of them don’t work. Other factors play a role in this trend, but cascade effects play their part in the growth of diet fads.