Study Explains Why Humans and Animals Seek Information About Unpredictable Future Events
Researchers have developed a normative theoretical framework to explain why humans and animals pay a cost to obtain information about uncertain future rewards, even when that information cannot change their behavior. The phenomenon, known as 'subjective value without instrumental value,' has been observed across many species but lacked a unified explanation. The study suggests that valuing non-instrumental information is adaptive because it solves multiple core computational problems in natural environments, offering diverse survival benefits.
A new preprint posted to bioRxiv proposes a normative framework to explain one of behavioral science's longstanding puzzles: why organisms actively seek information about future outcomes they cannot control. The researchers formalized and evaluated several competing theories, each framing subjective information value as an adaptive estimate of advantage for solving fundamental computational challenges in naturalistic settings. Their analysis found that human and animal subjective valuations of information are well-calibrated to address these problems simultaneously, rather than serving any single purpose. The team also derived novel forms of information that allow existing theories to be empirically dissociated from one another, and demonstrated that combining the subjective values predicted by multiple theories improves performance across diverse environments. The findings suggest that the seemingly paradoxical preference for non-instrumental information is not irrational but instead reflects a conserved biological strategy that pays 'diverse dividends in nature.' Because the behavior is observed across species, the framework may have broad implications for understanding decision-making, curiosity, and information-seeking in both humans and animals.
What's missing
As a preprint, this work has not yet undergone formal peer review. The study does not address potential individual or developmental differences in information-seeking preferences, nor does it specify the neural mechanisms that might implement the proposed computations. Open questions remain about how the framework generalizes to aversive or ambiguous information contexts.
What different sources said
- bioRxivCenter
Why do we seek information about the future? On the origins of subjective value without instrumental value
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