People adaptively use information to improve their internal states and external outcomes.

ABSTRACT: Information can strongly impact people's affect, their level of uncertainty and their decisions. It is assumed that people seek information with the goal of improving all three. But are they successful at achieving this goal? Answering this question is important for assessing the impact of self-driven information consumption on people's well-being. Here, over five experiments (total N = 727) we show that participants accurately predict the impact of information on their internal states (e.g., affect and cognition) and external outcomes (e.g., material rewards), and use these predictions to guide information-seeking choices. A model incorporating participants' subjective expectations regarding the impact of information on their affective, cognitive, and material outcomes accounted for infor

SUBMITTER: Cogliati Dezza I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10510028 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature