Micro-Costs

Authors

Kiel Brennan-Marquez, University of ConnecticutFollow
Brendan S. Maher, Texas A&M University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-2025

Journal Title

Georgetown Law Journal

ISSN

0016-8092

Abstract

The modern world is filled with tiny attentional impositions (cognitiveasks) that inflict small mental burdens (micro-costs) on virtually everyone, everywhere, all the time. Micro-costs make life worse, and everybody knows it. They sap collective energy; they lead to worse decisions; they exacerbate inequality; and they contribute to an overall sense of "mismanagement" in the world, a sentiment that readily pairs with destructive political impulses.

Yet the law has essentially ignored micro-costs-until now. In what follows, we construct a theory of micro-costs that gives the phenomenon analytic shape and charts a path forward for reform. Drawing on the insights of philosophy, economics, and cognitive science, we canvass the ways that micro-costs crowd out the best parts of life, impair cognitive performance, and inflame societal disaffection. Micro-costs are everywhere-cutting across otherwise-disparate spheres of life-because a host of technological, social, and organizational developments have made cognitive-asks cheaper, more valuable, and harder to avoid than in years past. Motivated by this diagnosis, the Article culminates with a number of ideas for regulating micro-costs on the ground.

First Page

759

Last Page

821

Num Pages

63

Volume Number

113

Issue Number

4

Publisher

Georgetown University Law Center

Recommended Citation

Kiel Brennan-Marquez & Brendan S. Maher, Micro-Costs, 113 Geo. L.J. 759 (2025).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/2214

File Type

PDF