Architectural styles of curiosity in global Wikipedia mobile app readership

Abstract

Intrinsically motivated information seeking is an expression of curiosity believed to be central to human nature. However, most curiosity research relies on small, Western convenience samples. Here, we expand an analysis of a laboratory study with 149 participants browsing Wikipedia to 482,760 readers using Wikipedia's mobile app in 14 languages from 50 countries or territories. By measuring the structure of knowledge networks constructed by readers weaving a thread through articles in Wikipedia, we provide the first replication of two distinctive architectural styles of curiosity: that of the busybody and of the hunter. Further, we find that latent dimensions of browsing patterns explain the variation in knowledge network structure, and reflect the existence of a third architectural style of curiosity---the dancer---which was previously predicted by a historico-philosophical examination of texts written across the last 2 millennia and is characterized by creative modes of knowledge production. Finally, across languages and countries, we identify novel associations between the structure of knowledge networks and population-level indicators of spatial navigation, education, mood, well-being, and inequality. Collectively, these results advance our understanding of Wikipedia’s readership globally and demonstrate how cultural and geographical properties of the digital environment relate to different styles of curiosity.

Exploratory exploitation and exploitative exploration: The phenomenology of play and the computational dynamics of search

“…By contrast, preferring familiarity can manifest as a form of perseverative information seeking that was associated with deprivation curiosity (Lydon-Staley, , a drive to reduce uncertainty and acquire missing information (Kashdan et al, 2018;. This preference for familiarity has been seen as prevalent in people with greater depressed mood and anxiety (Zhou et al, 2023), and may be an important heuristic strategy to reduce uncertainty for better reliability of future-oriented decisions (Harhen & Bornstein, 2023;Jiang, Kulesza, Singh, & Lewis, 2015). However, in large environments, such local heuristics are impoverished, particularly when higher-order associations are needed for planning.…”

“…The ability to use more complex knowledge structures may involve a spatial-like ability to navigate those structures (Rmus, Ritz, Hunter, Bornstein, & Shenhav, 2022), as well as a metacognitive ability to balance knowledge uncertainty with deeper planning Wade & Kidd, 2019;. Indeed, a form of mental navigation that spans diverse spaces has been proposed to be linked with both creativity and curiosity (Aru, Drüke, Pikamäe, & Larkum, 2023;Eysenbach, Gupta, Ibarz, & Levine, 2018;Zhou et al, 2023). Although such diversity and depth can decrease knowledge uncertainty, it comes at the cost of time and computational resources to accrue and update information.…”