The value of non-instrumental information in anxiety: insights from a resource-rational model of planning

Abstract

Anxiety is intimately related to the desire for information and, under some accounts, thought to arise from the intolerance of uncertainty. Here, we seek to test this hypothesis by studying the relationship between trait anxiety and the willingness to pay for non-instrumental information (i.e., information that reveals whether an event will happen but cannot be used to change the outcome). We model behavior with a resource-rational model of planning, according to which non-instrumental information is useful for planning ahead, but paying for this information only makes sense if the anticipated benefits of planning outweigh the cognitive and financial costs. We find that individuals with high trait somatic anxiety, but not other anxiety factors (cognitive anxiety, negative affect, or low self-esteem), consistently exhibit a stronger preference for non-instrumental information, regardless of the valence of the outcome, the probability of the outcome, or the cost to know if the outcome will happen (when it is nonzero). By fitting the resource-rational model, we find that the desire for information arises from a decreased subjective cost of information: subjects with high somatic anxiety behave as if the disutility of paying for information is relatively small. Our findings lend support to the intolerance of uncertainty hypothesis and highlight the specificity of trait somatic anxiety in modulating the desire for information.