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 or outcomes. This phenomenon, known as 'subjective value without instrumental value,' is observed across many species yet has 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 preprint posted to bioRxiv presents a normative framework aimed at resolving a longstanding puzzle in behavioral science: why do organisms seek out information about uncertain future events even when they have no ability to control those outcomes? The researchers formalized and evaluated several existing theories, each proposing that subjective information value arises as an adaptive solution to fundamental computational challenges faced in naturalistic settings. Their analysis found that human and animal subjective valuations of information are well-calibrated to address these challenges simultaneously, rather than serving just one theoretical purpose. The team also derived novel forms of information that allow competing theories to be empirically distinguished from one another. Crucially, they show that combining the subjective values predicted by multiple theories improves performance across a range of diverse environments, suggesting that information-seeking behavior may have been preserved across species because it pays multiple, varied dividends in nature. The work bridges evolutionary biology, computational neuroscience, and behavioral economics in offering a unified account of a conserved yet seemingly irrational preference.
What's missing
As a preprint, this work has not yet undergone formal peer review, so its theoretical claims and mathematical derivations remain unvalidated by independent expert scrutiny. The generalizability of the normative framework to highly complex or social environments, and whether it accounts for individual or species-level variation in information-seeking, are not fully addressed.
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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