Impatience for information
Curiosity is here today, gone tomorrow
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12166881 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andras Molnar (0000-0002-7010-7917, Department of Psychology University of Michigan Ann Arbor Michigan USA, corresponding author), Russell Golman (0000-0002-3414-223X, Social & Decision Sciences Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh Pennsylvania USA) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2023-10-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Behavioral Decision Making (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0894-3257 • E-ISSN: 1099-0771 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/bdm.2360 |
| OpenAlex | W4387845335 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 39 |
Based on the curiosity‐as‐drive theory and the theory of information gaps, we argue that curiosity—that is, the desire to seek out novel information for its own sake—is highly transient, and while people may be tempted by immediate answers, they may be less motivated when they need to wait for information. Contrary to standard economic models, we predict an immediacy effect (or present bias) for information even in those cases when waiting does not affect the objective value of information. Furthermore, we argue that this immediacy effect is independent from motivated emotion‐management; that is, introducing delays makes people less willing to obtain information for its own sake even when information does not elicit strong anticipatory feelings. We test these hypotheses in two pre‐registered experiments ( N = 2406) featuring real effort and monetary incentives and find that introducing a delay in information provision significantly reduces participants' willingness to obtain information. In Study 1, we also show that people display a stronger immediacy effect for information than for monetary rewards. In Study 2, we demonstrate that people are impatient for information regardless of how they expect to feel after receiving the information, and even when the perceived instrumental value of information remains unaffected by the delay. The strong impatience for information in both studies is consistent with the notion that curiosity acts as a drive, and as such, is highly transient
Affect (linguistics · Cognitive psychology · Curiosity · Economics · Epistemology · Feeling · Immediacy · Incentive · Microeconomics · Value (mathematics · Value of information · Communication · Computer Science · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Psychological and Educational Research Studies · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology · Artificial Intelligence
The Psychology and Neuroscience of Curiosity
A Theory of Human Curiosity
Interest and deprivation factors of epistemic curiosity
The ostrich effect
Psychological Expected Utility Theory and Anticipatory Feelings
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
Logistic or linear? Estimating causal effects of experimental treatments on binary outcomes using regression analysis.
The Hexaco-60
Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting
Measuring Epistemic Curiosity and Its Diversive and Specific Components
Information-seeking, curiosity, and attention
Is there a daily discount rate? Evidence from the food stamp nutrition cycle
Construal-level theory of psychological distance.
Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1
Time Discounting and Time Preference
A functional approach to explanation-seeking curiosity
The psychology of curiosity
The Economics of Information
Meta-Analysis of Present-Bias Estimation using Convex Time Budgets
Anticipation and the Valuation of Delayed Consumption
The paradox of Alypius and the pursuit of unwanted information
How Intrinsic Motivation is Crowded out and in
How people decide what they want to know
Diverse motives for human curiosity
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |