Discoveries

July 20, 2023

The Pain of Knowing

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People can go to great lengths to acquire information even if that information will not benefit them in any way, Science Magazine reported.

In a series of experiments, psychologist Stefan Bode and his team showed human volunteers a series of coin flips, where each side came with a different monetary reward. The researchers didn’t tell participants which side came with which prize.

Instead, they offered them a choice to immediately learn the payouts of the different sides in exchange for receiving a brief, painful – but ultimately harmless – flash of heat to their forearm.

Importantly, the acquired knowledge did not influence the result of the coin toss, as it remained entirely random. Regardless of their prior knowledge of the values, participants would receive an identical monetary amount.

The volunteers showed a willingness to endure a flash of heat at the lowest pain settings, with their determination further increased when larger monetary amounts were at stake.

Their perseverance wavered as the intensity of the heat flash increased, but in nearly half of the trials participants accepted even the most severe pain levels.

Bode explained that this behavior might derive from a deep-seated aversion to uncertainty, showing how some people are willing to endure such discomfort from a few scraps of information – even if it is not always tied to its usefulness.

“Not knowing is really painful,” he noted.

Other researchers added that the experiments show that information’s value increases when uncertainty is high, which prompts some individuals to go through agony to get it.

Bode’s team plans to further explore our aversion to uncertainty and answer a fundamental question.

“What is information worth?” he asked.

This story originally appeared in the July 20, 2023 newsletter, Winning Minds, Losing Hearts.