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Whether people inform themselves or remain ignorant is due to three factors:
"The information people decide to expose themselves to has important consequences for their health, finance and relationships. By better understanding why people choose to get informed, we could develop ways to convince people to educate themselves."
The researchers conducted five experiments with 543 research participants, to gauge what factors influence information-seeking.
In one of the experiments, participants were asked how much they would like to know about health information, such as whether they had an Alzheimer's risk gene or a gene conferring a strong immune system. In another experiment, they were asked whether they wanted to see financial information, such as exchange rates or what income percentile they fall into, and in another one, whether they would have liked to learn how their family and friends rated them on traits such as intelligence and laziness.
[...] The researchers found that people choose to seek information based on these three factors: expected utility, emotional impact, and whether it was relevant to things they thought of often. This three-factor model best explained decisions to seek or avoid information compared to a range of other alternative models tested.
Some participants repeated the experiments a couple of times, months apart. The researchers found that most people prioritise one of the three motives (feelings, usefulness, frequency of thought) over the others, and their specific tendency remained relatively stable across time and domains, suggesting that what drives each person to seek information is 'trait-like'.
In two experiments, participants also filled out a questionnaire to gauge their general mental health. The researchers found that when people sought information about their own traits, participants who mostly wanted to know about traits they thought about often, reported better mental health.
Journal Reference:
Christopher A. Kelly, Tali Sharot. Individual differences in information-seeking [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27046-5)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by tangomargarine on Wednesday December 08 2021, @05:08PM (1 child)
Is there anything I can do about this? Knowing I'm genetically predisposed to some condition that we don't have any treatment to head off? Oh gee thanks, that's going to make me happier, knowing I have a higher chance of cancer or whatever.
Kind of similar to the philosophical question, whether you'd want to know what day you'll die.
So basically, whether I should be jealous of other people. Another thing that is sure to make me happy.
So, do you enjoy rumors and family drama. Yep, hard pass on that.
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Personally I see a strong argument to be made for ignorance, considering how much of a dumpster fire the world is lately.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Wednesday December 08 2021, @06:14PM
Indeed. I find the questions asked odd. They are asking trivial and nonsensical question that doesn't matter. I guess they fall into that idea of relevancy vs utility then. I don't need to know most of those things and have no interesting in knowing about them. So I don't go around trying to gather information about them.
I guess one could argue that in our current day in age with easy access around the clock at the touch of a few buttons retaining or gathering information have become less relevant. It's Brain JIT. You get it when you need it and doesn't bother keeping it around for some eventual future.
Why would I want to know if I was going to get Alzheimers (etc) if there is nothing that can be done about it. Sure you might delay it and push it a bit but if it's inevitable then I guess I just prefer not to know. Don't need an actual death-timer/clock. It will or would just stress me more by knowing. Even if I found out that I don't have some aggressive precondition or gene doesn't in that regard matter. Likelihood of cancer etc is still fairly high eventually. Ignorance is in that regard bliss.
Why would I care what income percentile I'm part of? I'm sure most people know already if they are somewhat well off or not. It matters little to me if other people are richer or poorer then me since I am not them. I don't compare myself to Richy Rich. Knowing my place in the order doesn't in that regard matter either.
Exchange rates are only interesting if you actually plan on buying or selling things from oversees. Look up as needed, I don't exactly walk around wondering what the current rate of the $ is vs some other currencies. I have some vague notion about it but not an exact or up to date figure, that is good enough.
How my friends and family rate me on intelligence and laziness etc? I already know. If they are your friends you'll know or figure it out eventually. Also while I might have opinions about them in that regard I wouldn't share them. That is just a ticket for drama I don't want or need.
Use it or lose it. People that use their brain more I guess work it, or exercise it, more so it is better then just not doing it. Hardly groundbreaking conclusions.