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0Hello everyone, and welcome to today’s episode.
Think about the advice we often hear from friends, social media, or even strangers online: “You should try meditation.”“Exercise more.”“Pick up a new hobby to distract yourself.” All of these sound reasonable, right? But have you noticed that almost all of them ask us to do more?
A recent psychology study highlights something interesting: when giving mental health advice, humans show a strong “additive bias.” In simple terms, we prefer to tell others to add new activities, rather than subtract harmful ones.
The researchers ran several experiments and also looked at real-world settings. When participants were asked to give advice to people experiencing depression or anxiety, most said things like “go exercise” or “be more social,” but rarely “cut back on caffeine” or “stop gambling.” Even on Reddit forums about anxiety and depression, the same pattern appeared—people leaned heavily toward additive solutions.
Here’s the surprising part: even when participants were explicitly told that they could suggest “subtractive” advice, they still ended up writing more additive suggestions. In other words, this preference seems deeply ingrained.
Why? One reason is that adding activities feels more positive and concrete. It’s easier to imagine someone “going for a run” than “spending less time online.” Our brains may naturally favor visible, tangible actions.
But there’s a cost. If we keep telling people to “do more,” their lives become more crowded, their time more stretched, and they end up feeling overwhelmed. That may explain why self-managing mental health often feels so exhausting.
The study also found some nuances:
When advising strangers, people gave more additive advice.
When advising close friends, they were more willing to suggest subtractive changes, like quitting smoking or cutting back on drinking.
And interestingly, older participants leaned even more toward additive solutions.
The researchers even tested AI models like ChatGPT—and guess what? AI also showed a strong additive bias, sometimes even more than humans, likely because the training data it learns from is full of “do more” advice.
So what’s the takeaway? For mental health, sometimes doing less can be just as powerful as doing more. Cutting down on late-night scrolling, reducing caffeine, or stepping away from toxic habits can be just as healing as adding new routines.
Next time you want to support a friend—or yourself—pause for a moment. Instead of piling on another task, consider: what could be removed to lighten the load?
That’s it for today’s episode. If you’ve been feeling weighed down by all the “do more” advice out there, maybe this research will remind you: true relief can also come from subtraction. Sometimes, the best step forward is to simply step back.
