An Analysis of How Social Environments Increase Cognitive Load in Humans

Research Background We understand that from childhood, an individual requires schooling. From primary school through to secondary education and beyond, each of us must strive diligently to enhance our competitiveness within society. Yet during this endeavour, one inevitably encounters minor deviations from expectations. For instance, where an examination result that should have been an A+ now yields merely an A. In such circumstances, the solution typically lies in persistently adjusting one's approach and modifying study methods. However, in certain aspects of daily life, such as having one's bedding changed without permission, or inducing cognitive dissonance through the deliberate use of jargon to create information asymmetry, or employing persistent, repetitive tactics to overwhelm the victim with cognitive entropy until they concede verbally, or by co-opting third parties to seize legitimate resources from the other party, or through actions that leave one party feeling baffled—such as discovering a device hasn't fully charged after plugging it in—or by conveying signals through facial expressions that cause cognitive overload, preventing one party from sustaining focus on studies or tasks that could significantly enhance their capabilities. This research paper uses the occurrence of damaged goods to illustrate the idealised approach to resolving such incidents, alongside the practical challenges encountered when implementing this approach in real-world scenarios.