Professor David McAdams explores how information overload changes what we know, with lower-quality ideas receiving less scrutiny before spreading

Every day, people decide which headlines to read, which social media posts to believe, and which recommendations deserve attention. As information becomes faster and cheaper to produce, the challenge is deciding what is worth trusting.

In this episode of Fuqua Insights Podcast, Professor David McAdams of Duke University's Fuqua School of Business discusses his research on how information spreads through social interactions and what happens when the volume of information overwhelms people's limited attention. Drawing on game theory and what he describes as economic epidemiology, McAdams centers the conversation on his recent paper examining how changes in the information environment shape collective knowledge.

The paper's central finding is that increasing the volume of information can reduce the reliability of what people collectively know. McAdams argues that information spreads through "social transmission chains," where people decide whether to remember, share, or ignore what they encounter. As more information floods the system, people have less capacity to process each idea, causing those transmission chains to become shorter. The result is a trade-off in which "people know more, but they're dumber," he said.

McAdams explains that limited attention is the mechanism driving this outcome. Because people cannot fully process an endless stream of information, they rely less on careful social filtering. "When there's an abundance of information, there's a scarcity of attention," he explains. With fewer opportunities for information to be evaluated and passed through multiple people, ideas receive less scrutiny before spreading. He also notes that AI may further change this dynamic by making information easier to produce, access, and summarize, while also reshaping how people interact with information networks.

McAdams emphasizes that organizations should intentionally design how information is shared rather than relying on informal conversations alone. He points to approaches that encourage independent judgment, structured evaluation, and thoughtful dissemination of information before decisions are made. At the same time, he notes that social interactions remain valuable because they help refine and improve ideas over time. As organizations increasingly adopt AI tools and navigate growing information flows, designing effective information environments becomes an increasingly important leadership challenge.

Duke Fuqua Insights features digestible conversations with our faculty about the most impactful research from their careers, including studies they teach in Fuqua classes. New episodes every other week in season.

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Professor Sharon Belenzon examines how the U.S. innovation ecosystem became fragmented and why large firms still have a role to help solve today's technological challenges

How should the United States organize its innovation ecosystem to solve the biggest scientific and technological challenges? According to Professor Sharon Belenzon, the answer depends not only on funding research, but also on how different organizations—from universities to startups to large corporations—work together to translate science into products.

In this episode of Duke Fuqua Insights Podcast, Belenzon, a strategy professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, discusses the mechanics of government procurement alongside ideas from his forthcoming book, Inventing Prosperity, on the past 150 years of American innovation. He argues that understanding today's innovation challenges requires understanding how the U.S. innovation system has changed, from one in which large firms carried out many stages of innovation to one in which specialized organizations perform different tasks.

Belenzon explains that this more specialized model has produced important successes in some sectors, particularly the life sciences, where different organizations can efficiently contribute their expertise. But he argues that other fields—including materials science, battery technology, and clean energy—may require a greater degree of vertical integration, with large firms serving as anchors of the innovation ecosystem. His research on government procurement offers a complementary example of how organizational structure influences innovation, showing that under specific conditions, government procurement contracts can create incentives for firms to pursue ambitious technological challenges.

A central takeaway is that firms with both research and manufacturing capabilities can, in certain circumstances, organize innovation more efficiently than separating those activities across different organizations. As Belenzon puts it, "Some problems cannot be solved by startups alone," and policymakers should avoid treating all large firms the same. Instead, they should identify those that serve as anchors for scientific and technological progress.

For business leaders, the conversation offers a framework for thinking about innovation beyond R&D spending alone. Organizational design, incentives, and the relationships among firms, universities, investors, and government all shape whether scientific discoveries become technologies with broad economic impact.

Duke Fuqua Insights features digestible conversations with our faculty about the most impactful research from their careers, including studies they teach in Fuqua classes. New episodes every other week in season.

For more from Duke Fuqua, visit us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and the Duke Fuqua Insights newsletter.

Professor Kimberly Wade-Benzoni explains how reflecting on long-term impact shapes motivation, behavior, and decision-making

Many people ask themselves, “does my work actually matter?” Concerns about engagement, burnout, and job satisfaction are common, and they relate to a basic need to feel that work has an impact not only today, but also in the future.

In this episode of Fuqua Insights Podcast, Professor Kimberly Wade-Benzoni of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business discusses her research on the psychology of legacy. She defines legacy as “an enduring impact attached to one’s identity that persists after one has left the context in which the lasting effect was created.” Her research examines how thinking about legacy influences decisions, especially those involving tradeoffs between present and future outcomes.

One of the main findings of Wade-Benzoni’s research is that when people reflect on the legacy they want to leave, their work feels more meaningful. They are also more satisfied in their jobs and more likely to help others. These results come from studies showing that activating legacy motivation can produce positive outcomes in workplace settings.

Legacy reflection changes how people think about their work. As Wade-Benzoni explains, “it’s a way that our actions can have impact that outlasts our individual lives.” This process allows people to think about how part of their identity can continue through others, which helps create meaning and shifts attention from immediate tasks to longer-term goals.

The research also identifies practical applications. A structured reflection exercise—for example, asking individuals to write about how they want to be remembered and the impact they want to have—can activate legacy thinking. This approach can be used in leadership development, career planning, and other organizational contexts. It also encourages people to behave in a more future-oriented and other-oriented way, helping counter short-term, self-focused decision-making, and supporting more meaningful and lasting impact.

Duke Fuqua Insights features digestible conversations with our faculty about the most impactful research from their careers, including studies they teach in Fuqua classes. New episodes every other week in season.

For more from Duke Fuqua, visit us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and the Duke Fuqua Insights newsletter.