An Energizing Role for Motivation in Information-Seeking During the Early Phase of the COVID- 19 Pandemic

Abstract

Curiosity is a powerful determinant of behavior. The past decade has seen a surge of scientific research on curiosity, an endeavor recently imbibed with urgency by the WHO, which set managing information-seeking as a public health goal during pandemics. And yet, a fundamental aspect of curiosity has remained unresolved: its relationship to utility. Is curiosity a drive towards information simply for the sake of obtaining that information, or is it a rational drive towards optimal learning? We leveraged people’s curiosity about COVID-19 to study information-seeking and learning in a large sample (n=5376) during the spring of 2020. Our findings reveal that curiosity is goal-rational in that it maximizes the personal utility of learning. Personal utility, unlike normative economic utility, is contingent on a person’s motivational state. On the basis of these findings, we explain information-seeking during the pandemic with a rational theoretical framework for curiosity.

Information Seeking Patterns and COVID-19 in the United States

“…Given the heterogeneity of information sources and messages, it is possible that multiple, and even incompatible mental models emerge and coexist at the individual and population levels (e.g., Alesina et al, 2020). It is likely that some of these mental models are closer to and some further away from the facts known about the pandemic (Abir et al, 2020). These processes can be viewed through the lens of the knowledge gap hypothesis in mass communication research and the related concept of the "Matthew Effect."…”

Curiosity and mesolimbic functional connectivity drive information seeking in real life

“…The present results support this idea by demonstrating that individual differences in curiosity traits, that is, the general curiosity of a person, are associated with how often participants inform themselves about COVID-19-related news. Consequently, not only temporally variable curiosity states are associated with COVID-19-related information seeking (19) but also temporally stable curiosity traits. Despite the overarching influence of the pandemic on physiological and psychological well-being (20, 21), curiosity traits, as measured with the Five-Dimensional Curiosity Scale (24), remained stable over time while anxiety levels increased from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…Given that previous research found mixed results regarding the relationship between anxiety and information seeking, it was not clear whether curiosity alone or in addition to anxiety would be linked to real-life information seeking. Anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic had been associated with a reduction in the willingness to wait for information (19) but also increased information-seeking behaviour (22, 23). However, anxiety was not associated with information seeking when obsessive compulsive behaviour was taken into account (23).…”

“…The novelty of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the uncertainty about personally relevant health, social, and economic consequences introduced information gaps about COVID-19-related information to the world-wide population. Initial research has suggested that states of curiosity drive information seeking about COVID-19-related news by maximising personal utility as shown in an online experiment, in which participants’ curiosity was measured as the willingness to wait for COVID-19-related information (19). However, it remains an open question whether individual differences related to how strongly people generally express curiosity, that is curiosity traits, predict information seeking of COVID-19-related news.…”

“…Based on the overarching influence of the early COVID-19 pandemic on physiological and psychological well-being (20, 21), the temporal stability of curiosity traits should be especially probed under these life-changing circumstances that might be perceived as threatening and consequently enhance anxiety levels. Thus far, anxiety levels during the COVID-19 pandemic have been associated with a reduction in the willingness to wait for information (19) but also with increased information-seeking behaviour (22, 23). Anxiety predicted COVID-19-related information seeking (22) but was not related to information seeking when obsessive compulsive behaviour was taken into account (23), indicating that anxiety is an important control variable when determining the key drivers of real-life information seeking.…”