@stefanieschulte On the other hand, you are seeing a rise in small investors backing "unconvincing business models" on crowdfunding sites. Often a slick marketing presentation will convince people that a ridiculous product is commercially viable.

@oswriter I think this is basically the same problem as described in the paper (see page 3): "Extensive psychological evidence shows that individuals pay less attention to, and place less weight upon, complex and hard-to-process information. A type of information that is especially hard to evaluate is the originality of an innovation, which involves many dimensions of uncertainty that typically require extensive knowledge and expertise to evaluate."

@stefanieschulte Well there's that. But I'm also thinking about cases where individuals become emotionally invested in a particular idea without stopping to consider the consequences. Do a web search for "Axanar" and you'll see what I mean. :-)

@oswriter Are you referring to the lawsuit? In general, I think works of art are somewhat different from other businesses (especially when people fund them for their own sake and not in order to make a profit).