Leidy Klotz and colleagues published a study in Nature in 2021 that found something counterintuitive about how humans solve problems. When given structures, texts, or schedules to improve, participants systematically preferred additive solutions — adding elements, adding words, adding meetings — over subtractive ones that removed existing elements, even when removal was objectively the better solution and even when participants were explicitly told that additions and subtractions were equally valued. The bias toward addition was not a marginal tendency. It was the dominant mode of problem-solving across every domain tested, and it persisted even when participants were reminded that subtraction was an option.