Brian Zikmund-Fisher editorial on the "dilution" effect in drug advertisements

In an editorial in Nature Human Behaviour, Brian Zikmund-Fisher discusses the findings of a recent study about the unintended consequences of argument dilution in direct-to-consumer drug advertising. In a series of experiments, study authors, Niro Sivanathan and Hemant Kakker found that long lists of serious and minor side effects found in drug advertisements actually "dilute" consumers' judgments of the overall risk from side effects.