Why People Add Rather Than Remove

People tend to create or select solutions that involve adding new elements rather than taking existing elements away. The researchers carried out a number of tests, including asking 91 participants to make a pattern they were given symmetrical by either adding or removing colored boxes. Just 20% subtracted while 80% added. In another experiment, the team scanned through 651 past proposals for improving the campus at the university with only 11% proposing a limiting something that already existed and 89% proposing adding something new.