Individual Differences in Information-seeking

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2021 Dec 4

PMID 34862360

Citations 21

Authors

Christopher A Kelly

Tali Sharot

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Vast amounts of personalized information are now available to individuals. A vital research challenge is to establish how people decide what information they wish to obtain. Here, over five studies examining information-seeking in different domains we show that information-seeking is associated with three diverse motives. Specifically, we find that participants assess whether information is useful in directing action, how it will make them feel, and whether it relates to concepts they think of often. We demonstrate that participants integrate these assessments into a calculation of the value of information that explains information seeking or its avoidance. Different individuals assign different weights to these three factors when seeking information. Using a longitudinal approach, we find that the relative weights assigned to these information-seeking motives within an individual show stability over time, and are related to mental health as assessed using a battery of psychopathology questionnaires.

Citing Articles

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Vellani V, Glickman M, Sharot T Commun Psychol. 2024; 2(1):107.

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