Article
Details
Citation
FitzGibbon L, Lau JKL & Murayama K (2020) The seductive lure of curiosity: information as a motivationally salient reward. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 35, pp. 21-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.05.014
Abstract
Humans are known to seek non-instrumental information, sometimes expending considerable effort or taking risks to receive it, for example, ¡®curiosity killed the cat¡¯. This suggests that information is highly motivationally salient. In the current article, we first review recent empirical studies that demonstrated the strong motivational lure of curiosity ¨C people will pay and risk electric shocks for non-instrumental information; and request information that has negative emotional consequences. Then we suggest that this seductive lure of curiosity may reflect a motivational mechanism that has been discussed in the literature of reward learning: incentive salience. We present behavioral and neuroscientific evidence in support of this idea and propose two areas requiring further investigation ¨C how incentive salience for information is instigated; and individual differences in motivational vigor.
Keywords
Behavioral Neuroscience; Psychiatry and Mental health; Cognitive Neuroscience
Journal
Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences: Volume 35
Status | Published |
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Funders | and |
Publication date | 31/10/2020 |
Publication date online | 31/07/2020 |
URL | |
Publisher | Elsevier BV |
ISSN | 2352-1546 |
People (1)
Lecturer in Psychology, Psychology