The Value of Sharing Information: A Neural Account of Information Transmission

Abstract

Humans routinely share information with others. What drives us to do so? We used neuroimaging to test an account of information selection and sharing that emphasizes inherent reward in self-reflection and connecting with others. Participants underwent fMRI while they considered personally reading and sharing New York Times articles. Activity in hypothesized neural regions involved in positive valuation, self-related processing and taking the perspective of others was significantly associated with decisions to select and share articles, and scaled with preferences to do so. Activity in all three regions was greater when participants considered sharing with others versus selecting articles to read themselves. Findings suggest that people may consider value not only to self, but also to others even when selecting news articles to consume personally. Further, sharing heightens these pathways, in line with our proposed account of humans deriving value from self-reflection and connecting to others via sharing.

Neuroimaging, neuromodulation, and population health: the neuroscience of chronic disease prevention

“…Activity in this same value system that is associated with health behavior change also plays a central role in people's decisions to share health information with others. [58][59][60] Finally, brain activity in overlapping regions of the value system in relatively small groups of individuals has also been associated with larger scale health-relevant behaviors such as population-level responses to antismoking campaigns 50,61 and sharing of health news. 60 More recent research has moved beyond the exclusive use of average activity within single brain regions and taken greater advantage of the temporal dynamics that occur across the course of message receipt.…”

“…In parallel, both behavioral and neural evidence point to the importance of social norms in influencing the value calculation as well. 58…”

Editors’ Introduction: Remembering With Others: Conversational Dynamics and Mnemonic Outcomes

“…Perhaps, not surprisingly, creatures as social as humans are natural transmitters of memories (e.g., Bohanek, Marin, Fivush, & Duke, 2006;Higgins & Pittman, 2008). Indeed, sharing information, in and of itself, derives value for individuals (Baek, Scholz, Brook, & Falk, 2017;Wang, 2013). Bartlett's "serial reproduction" method, using images and stories as original stimuli, has inspired many studies on how verbal descriptions based on individual memories change over time (Mesoudi & Thornton, 2018;Ost & Costall, 2002;Roediger, Meade, Gallo, & Olson, 2014).…”

From the individual to the collective: The emergence of a psychological approach to collective memory

“…Perhaps not surprisingly, creatures as social as humans are natural transmitters (e.g., Bohanek, Marin, Fivush, & Duke, ; Higgins & Pittman, ). Indeed, sharing information, in and of itself, derives value for individuals (Baek, Scholz, O'Donnell & Falk, ; Wang, ). However, as will be discussed below, not all individuals are equal transmitters, not all events are effectively transmitted, and not all social interactions are conducive for transmission.…”