Diverse motives for human curiosity

Kobayashi, Kenji; Ravaioli, Silvio; Baranès, Adrien; Woodford, Michael; Gottlieb, Jacqueline

doi:10.1038/s41562-019-0589-3

Cited by 155 publications

(169 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The negative choices made by our participants are most likely consistent with the latter intrinsic motive. Participants chose images that were not hedonically pleasing and, in contrast to other recent (neuroscientific) studies targeting curiosity (e.g., Kobayashi et al, 2019;van Lieshout et al, 2018), there was no monetary outcome associated with choosing (negative) images.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…), in combination with the predicted reduction of this uncertainty when choosing to view images. Curiosity is often seen as a desire to resolve uncertainty (Berlyne, 1966;Loewenstein, 1994;Gottlieb & Oudeyer, 2018) and several recent studies have demonstrated that people experience higher levels of curiosity for uncertain stimuli (Kobayashi et al, 2019;van Lieshout, et al, 2018). People even engage with aversive stimuli to reduce uncertainty, preferring a reduction in uncertainty above a negative outcome (e.g., shock, Hsee & Ruan, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Choosing to view morbid information involves reward circuitry

Oosterwijk

Snoek

Tekoppele³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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People often seek out stories, videos or images that detail death, violence or harm.Considering the ubiquity of this behavior, it is surprising that we know very little about the neural circuits involved in choosing negative information. Here we show that choosing intensely negative stimuli engages similar brain regions as those that support extrinsic incentives and "regular" curiosity. Participants made choices to view negative and positive images, based on negative (e.g., a soldier kicks a civilian against his head) and positive (e.g., children throw flower petals at a wedding) verbal cues. We hypothesized that the conflicting, but relatively informative act of choosing to view a negative image, resulted in stronger activation of reward circuitry as opposed to the relatively uncomplicated act of choosing to view a positive stimulus. Indeed, as preregistered, we found that choosing negative cues was associated with activation of the striatum, inferior frontal gyrus, anterior insula, and anterior cingulate cortex, both when contrasting against a passive viewing condition, and when contrasting against positive cues. These findings nuance models of decision-making, valuation and curiosity, and are an important starting point when considering the value of seeking out negative content.Humans are active agents who often deliberately expose themselves to "morbid" information (e.g., information involving death, violence or harm). People choose to watch gruesome documentaries, click on links detailing terrifying attacks and visit locations of horrible events. Surprisingly, the fact that people experience curiosity for negative information, and often act on this feeling, is rarely addressed in theoretical models of curiosity and decision-making. Moreover, empirical work on this phenomenon is markedly limited and studies investigating the neural circuits involved in choosing negative information are virtually non-existent. Nevertheless, "morbid curiosity" is an important topic for investigation, because this ubiquitous behavior appears to be at odds with the idea that value and reward drive human information seeking. The present paper aims to expand the scientific enquiry of curiosity and choice, by investigating how the brain, and reward-related brain regions in particular, represent a deliberate choice to view intensely negative images that portray death, violence or harm.In the last decades, much progress has been made in understanding the neuroscience of choice, valuation and curiosity. Yet, when studying choice, decision-making scientists typically focus on extrinsically rewarding stimuli, such as monetary rewards (Braver, Krug,

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Choosing to view morbid information involves reward circuitry

Oosterwijk

Snoek

Tekoppele³

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, we are also curious about information that does not directly inform action or maximize reward (i.e. Bromberg-Martin & Hikosaka, 2009, 2011Charpentier, Bromberg-Martin, & Sharot, 2018;Kobayashi, Ravaioli, Baranès, Woodford, & Gottlieb, 2019;van Lieshout, Vandenbroucke, Müller, Cools, & de Lange, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Curiosity or savouring? Information seeking is modulated by both uncertainty and valence.

Lieshout¹,

Traast²,

Lange³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Curiosity is pervasive in our everyday lives, but little is known about its underlying mechanisms. In the current study, we assessed whether curiosity about uncertain outcomes is modulated by the valence of the information, i.e. whether the information is good or bad news. Using a lottery task in which outcome uncertainty, expected value and outcome valence (gain versus loss) were manipulated independently, we found that curiosity is overall higher for gains compared with losses. Surprisingly, curiosity increased with increasing outcome uncertainty for both gains and losses, contradicting models that posit that humans seek positive and avoid negative information. Curiosity thus follows from multiple drives, including a drive to improve our world model, as well as, separately, a drive to maximize positive information.

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“…The influence of curiosity for seemingly useless information in the decision-making process has been recognised in the literature 57 . Several studies have shown how humans and nonhuman primates have a strong preference for advance information-seeking 17,18,22,58,59 . That is, if provided with the possibility of receiving advance information about an upcoming reward (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although there have been various theories on the construct and origin of curiosity in the literature [10][11][12] , a recent body of research has seen an emerging consensus that, like food and other extrinsic rewards, curiosity can be understood as a reward-learning process of knowledge acquisition or information seeking 8,[13][14][15][16] . According to this account, individuals are motivated to actively seek knowledge because knowledge acquisition serves as an inherent 'reward' (possibly 4 due to uncertainty reduction and potential anticipatory utility 17 ), reinforcing further information seeking or behaviours that promote information gain. In fact, studies have repeatedly demonstrated that both animals [18][19][20] and humans 6,[21][22][23] are willing to pay small amounts to satisfy their curiosity for knowledge about a future reward that cannot be changed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shared striatal activity in decisions to satisfy curiosity and hunger at the risk of electric shocks

Lau

Ozono

Kuratomi

et al. 2018

Preprint

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1Curiosity is often portrayed as a desirable feature of human faculty. However, curiosity 2 may come at a cost that sometimes puts people in a harmful situation. Here, with a set of 3 behavioural and neuroimaging experiments using stimuli that strongly trigger curiosity (e.g., 4 magic tricks), we examined the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying the irresistible 5 lure of curiosity. We consistently demonstrated that across different samples, people were indeed 6 willing to gamble, subjecting themselves to physical risks (i.e. electric shocks) in order to satisfy

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Diverse motives for human curiosity

Cited by 155 publications

References 45 publications

Choosing to view morbid information involves reward circuitry

Choosing to view morbid information involves reward circuitry

Curiosity or savouring? Information seeking is modulated by both uncertainty and valence.

Shared striatal activity in decisions to satisfy curiosity and hunger at the risk of electric shocks

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