Related Research

The Long Number began with an empirical, personal observation: extremely large economic quantities can lose their intuitive meaning. The project started by exploring that problem visually. During its development, this research was found to examine related cognitive, economic and information-design questions independently.

Landy, Silbert & Goldin (2013)

Estimating Large Numbers

Research into how people mentally represent and estimate very large numerical magnitudes and the distances between them.

Jackson & Payne (2021)

Cognitive Barriers to Reducing Income Inequality

Connects numerical insensitivity with people’s interpretation of very large income differences.

Boyce-Jacino et al. (2022)

Large numbers cause magnitude neglect

Experimental evidence that extremely large economic quantities can reduce sensitivity to differences in magnitude and that changing their representation can improve understanding.

Szaszi et al. (2024)

Selective insensitivity to income held by the richest

Shows that this insensitivity is especially relevant toward the very top of the income distribution.

Bogard, West & Fox (2026)

How common depictions of wealth distributions can bias people to underestimate inequality

Connects the issue directly with information design and visualization by studying how common representations of wealth distributions can influence perceived inequality.

These studies do not validate The Long Number. They provide independent research context for questions the project reached empirically.