Less-is-better effect

Biological Parallel

Presented alone, a small perfectly-formed nest (4 eggs, all pristine) rates higher than when a larger damaged nest (7 eggs, 2 cracked) is evaluated alone—even though 5 viable eggs exceed 4. Isolated evaluation focuses on per-unit perfection; comparative evaluation reveals total value (5 > 4). The effect exposes evaluation-mode dependency: minds evolved different assessment algorithms for different information contexts. Quality-per-unit versus total-quantity assessment are distinct neural processes, not the same calculation.