Is playing alone in the darkness sufficient to preventinformational cascades?

Seminal models of herd behaviour and informational cascades point out the existence of information negativeexternalities, and propose to destroy information in order to achieve social improvements. Although in the lastyears many features of herd behaviour and informational cascades have been studied, this particular aspect hasnever been extensively analysed. In this article we investigate, both theoretically and experimentally, whetherand to which extent destroying information can improve welfare.