When we want to know the bad news
Exploring information-seeking for unavoidable pain stimuli
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21505038 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stefan Bode (0000-0002-0258-7795, New York University Abu Dhabi), Antonia Varsamis (The University of Melbourne), Zoe Xu (0000-0002-2649-418X, The University of Melbourne), Zhongyu Andy Xu (The University of Melbourne), Matthew Jiwa (0000-0002-4785-6389, The University of Melbourne), Hassan Andrabi (0000-0003-3929-5195, The University of Melbourne), Natalia Egorova (0000-0002-9244-2900, The University of Melbourne), Natalia Egorova-Brumley (The University of Melbourne), Carmen Morawetz (0000-0003-3607-7627, Universität Innsbruck, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 1-14 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-05 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cognition & Emotion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0269-9931 • E-ISSN: 1464-0600 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02699931.2025.2597887 |
| PMID | 41347565 |
| OpenAlex | W4417033353 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 63 |
Humans have a strong desire for information. Recent theories claimed, however, that this is different for "bad news". This exploratory study tested whether participants actively seek information about the intensity of biologically relevant, unavoidable heat pain stimuli. Participants played a series of coin-flip lotteries. Each side of a virtual coin was associated with one of two pain intensities. The range of pain intensities included no pain, low pain, medium pain, and high pain. In each trial, participants could bid small amounts of money to learn the outcome before delivery, serving as a measure of the subjective value of the information. Two thirds of the sample regularly made bids. Bid amounts increased with higher average pain expectations and higher range between possible intensities. Some participants who were willing to pay for information experienced decreased pain sensation when knowing the intensity in advance. Bid amounts were further correlated with the use of suppression as an emotion regulation strategy. These results challenge the idea that "bad news" are preferably ignored. For unavoidable pain, a higher salience and greater uncertainty about the event were associated with more information-seeking. One possibility is that this knowledge decreased subjective pain experience by reducing its emotional impact
Cognition · Exploratory research · Pain catastrophizing · Pain sensation · Sensation · Action Observation and Synchronization · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Pain Management and Placebo Effect
General Self-Efficacy Scale
State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Adults
Measuring utility by a single-response sequential method
Fearing the unknown
Information Avoidance
The Psychophysics Toolbox
Health Information—Seeking Behavior
The psychology of curiosity
The Emerging Field of Emotion Regulation
The sense of control as a moderator of social class differences in health and well-being
Effects of accurate expectations and behavioral instructions on reactions during a noxious medical examination
Monitoring and blunting
Dealing with feeling
The biopsychosocial approach to chronic pain
How people decide what they want to know
| Highly cited | No |
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